Miss Harding will make a first-class golf player, and I told her so.

“Do you really think so?” she asked, after several swings, most of which would have hit the ball.

“I certainly do,” I declared.  “All that you need is the constant advice of someone who is thoroughly familiar with the technique of the game.”

She utterly ignored this hint.

“My one ambition,” she said, with a bewitching little laugh, rather plaintive, I thought, “is to drive a ball far enough so that there will be some difficulty in finding it.  It must be jolly to hit a ball straight out so far that you cannot tell within yards just where it is.  Do you know,” and she looked really sad, “I have never lost a ball in my life?”

“How remarkable!” I exclaimed.  “I have known Carter to lose a dozen at one game.”

“Indeed!  I think Mr. Carter is a perfectly splendid player,” she declared.  “I was watching him one day last week.  He is so strong, confident and easy in his execution of shots.  If I could drive like he does I would be willing to lose a dozen balls every time I played.”

I changed the subject, and was showing her a new way to grip the club when I heard a step behind us.

“Hello, Smith!  If you are going out in that buzz-wagon with me, Kid, you had better drop that stick and get a move on.”

Of course it was her father.  No one else would dare talk to Miss Harding like that.  To hear him one would think that she was twelve years old, but I suppose fathers can do as they like.

“Fix up a ball, Kid, and let’s see how far you can soak it,” he said.

“I am just practising the follow through,” explained Miss Harding.  “Mr. Smith has told me many things about the correct way to follow through.”

“When your mother was your age she was practising the ‘follow through,’ as you call it, on a scrubbing board over a wash tub,” declared Mr. Harding, and he said it as if he were proud of it.

“I could do that if I had to,” laughed Miss Harding, handing me the club.  “Thank you, Mr. Smith.  To-morrow I expect to show decided improvement.  Come on, papa!”

“So long, Smith,” said Harding.  “I’m going to trim you youngsters at your own game before I get through with you.”

I took a rest all the afternoon so as to be in shape for to-morrow.  I propose to show Miss Harding that I am the peer of Carter or anyone else who plays here.

It never occurred to me that it was possible to get enjoyment out of a golf course by any method other than by playing over it, but I had keen pleasure all the afternoon in studying the men who frequent the Woodvale links.  My refusal to play created a sensation, and I enjoyed that.