hat in view, she had left
her own avenues open, by seating at her left a young man whose concerns
were almost exclusively gastronomic.

But, as usual, Good surprised her. Molly began, as was to be expected,
by giving her partner a cursory examination, and then plunging
unceremoniously into a heated discussion of the afternoon's golf, with
Roger who sat across the table.

"That was the most inexcusable putt I ever hope to see," she declared.

"I was afraid of it," confessed Roger dejectedly. "That hole looked like
the eye of a needle."

"You can't hole short putts without confidence," observed Ned Alder, who
was a notoriously bad golfer. "Now I always...."

"Why don't you take a course of lessons in confidence?" asked Molly
rudely.

"Putting," began Good interrogatively, when the laugh at the allusion to
the extent and fruitlessness of Alder's golf education had subsided,
"is...."

"The act of putting the ball in the hole," said Molly with a mixture of
surprise and impatience in her tone. A sudden silence fell around the
board as the entire company listened. The tall stranger, such an object
of curiosity to all of them, had spoken for the first time.

"And you call that 'holing,' I believe?" he went on imperturbably.

"Yes," said Roger, sympathetic with Good's isolation.

"And you have to have confidence to do it successfully?"

"Lord, yes," said Alder, under his breath.

"Golf must be a very ancient game," mused Good seriously. The painful
silence continued. Judith ached to say something that would rescue him
from the clumsy predicament into which he had thrust himself, and she
wanted to slap Molly for the expression of supercilious disdain on her
face. But no words came for the one and she was not quite atavistic
enough for the other.

"Yes, it's mentioned in Scripture," continued Good finally,
when the pause had become almost unbearable. "You recall the
injunction--something like this--'have faith and it will make
thee--hole'?"

The atrocious pun was uttered amid a silence which needed only a little
less tact on the part of those present to make it derisive, and with the
speaker looking down at his plate, seemingly oblivious to all his
surroundings. For a moment even the quiet noises of service seemed to be
stilled. Then, with first a half-intimated gasp of amazement, there was
a burst of almost hysteric laughter.

It was a gay and intimate gathering, and Good's contribution to the wit
of the eveni