Harry wisely reserved his criticisms until he had read his own chapter, which I awaited with a smile of brotherly resignation.
“You know,” explained he, before he began, “I tried to get more incident than you, that’s why I left out the scenery.”
Aha! my scenery had fetched him, then! I wondered what his incident would be like.
“Fire away!” said I.
“Her name was Sarah Vixen—(I’m beginning now)—Her name was Sarah Vixen. She was a horrid old maid. One morning she went and played her organ in Euston Square. She played ‘Wait till the clouds roll by,’ and ‘Sweethearts’ waltz’, and the ‘Marseillaise,’ one after the other, after which she paused and watched a tennis match which was going on in the square.
“It was a four-handed match between two rather good-looking boys who wore red and green ribbons on their straws—(those were the Denhamby colours)—and two big London fellows. The schoolboys won the toss, and the fair one served first. He put in a very hot service just over the net, which broke sharp as it fell, and bothered the Londoners completely. The dark hand-in played close up to the net, and was very neat in the way he picked up balls and smashed them over.”
Harry paused and looked doubtfully at me for a moment, and then went on.
“The schoolboys pulled off the first three games, and then the Londoners scored a game, owing to the wind. A large crowd collected to see the match, and shouts of ‘Well put over!’ greeted the schoolboys on every hand. The Londoners didn’t score another game in the first set, and scored nothing in the second.
“The crowd became thicker and thicker every moment. In the last game the fair schoolboy spun a ball into the far left-hand corner, which the Londoner could not reach, and the match ended in a glorious victory for the two schoolboys, who, apparently unaware of the cheers of the crowd, walked home arm-in-arm as if nothing had happened.
“On their way they met a runaway horse, and loud cries of ‘Take care!’ ‘Get out of the way!’ met them on all sides. A nursemaid was wheeling a child across the road at that moment, and quick as thought the fair boy sprang at the horse and brought him to a standstill just in time. The crowd seeing it, rushed with a great cheer to the young hero, but he seeing it, took his friend’s arm and walked on as if nothing had happened.