"The weak spot about golf," said the Reverend Henry, "is that there's no way of sending the results to the Red Cross. There's really no other earthly reason why one shouldn't play. There's every reason why one should, but——"
"I haven't played since the War began," said I.
"Nor I. But I have a notion that if one played without caddies and with old balls——"
"Or got a refugee for a caddy and grossly overpaid him," Henry put in hopefully.
"I know what you want, Sinclair," said I. "I know perfectly well what you want. You would like to play golf, but you wouldn't feel comfortable unless you had a notice pinned to your back in some such terms as these—'This man, though he may not look it, is over 38; he is also medically unfit. He has two brothers and a nephew at the front. He has more than once taken the chair at recruiting meetings and he is entertaining seven belgians. He has already sent three sweaters and a pair of ski socks to the fleet. This is the first holiday he has had for three months, and he is now playing a round of golf.' Then you would feel all right."
"Yes, in your case, Sinclair, it is merely moral cowardice," said Henry. "But it's queer about golf. Every one admits that billiards is all right, and—I think—Badminton."
"Well, perhaps I am a bit over-sensitive," said I, "but I'm bound to say that even if I were playing billiards in a public place at present I should feel happier if I used the butt end of the cue."
"The problem seems to be closely allied," said the Reverend Henry, "to the problem of Sabbath observance when I was a child. We were very strict in our household. We were not allowed to play games of any sort on Sunday so long as they were played according to the accepted rules; but we discovered after a time that if we played them wrong no one objected. We should certainly have been punished for playing tennis with a tennis racquet, but if we played with a walking-stick or the flat side of a pair of bellows there was not the slightest objection."
"That's what I feel like," said Sinclair. "I don't want to do the old things in the old ways."
"We never have people to dinner now," said I, "but we have shoals to lunch."