, being first in the
field, resolutely bore off Mabel Falkner as his auxiliary. And George,
realizing that he was "out of it" for some time to come, perhaps, too,
taking a vague comfort in the thought that there is safety in numbers,
actually did proceed to carry out his threat, and betook himself
townwards.

Laurence remained seated on the _stoep_, talking to Mrs. Falkner and one
of the visitors; but all the while, though never absent-minded or
answering at random, his eyes were following, with a soothing and
restful sense of enjoyment, every movement of Lilith's form--a very
embodiment of grace and supple ease, he pronounced it. The movement of
the game suited her as it suited but few. She never seemed to grow hot,
or flurried, or dishevelled, as so many of the fair are wont to do while
engaged in that popular pastime. Every movement was one of unstudied,
unconscious grace. In point of hard fact, she played indifferently; but
she did so in a manner that was infinitely good to look at.

"Don't you play at this, Mr. Stanninghame?" said the other visitor, "or
have you got a soul above such frivolities?"

"That doesn't exactly express it," he answered. "The truth is, I don't
derive sufficient enjoyment from skipping about on one or both legs at
the end of a racket, making frantic attempts to stop a ball which the
other side is making equally frantic and fruitless efforts to drive at
me through a net. As a dispassionate observer, the essence of the game
seems to me to consist in sending the ball against the net as hard and
as frequently as practicable."

At this the visitor spluttered, and, being of the softer sex, declared
that he must be a most dreadful cynic; and Lilith, who was near enough
to hear his remarks, turned her head, with a rippling flash of mirth in
her eyes, and said "Thank you!" which diversion indeed caused her to
perform the very feat he had been so whimsically describing.

Presently, growing tired of talking, he withdrew from the others. It
happened that there was a book in the drawing room which had caught his
attention during a former visit; and now he sought it, and taking it up
from the table, stood there alone in the cool shaded room turning from
page to page, absorbed in comparing passages of its contents. Then a
light step, a rustle of skirts, a lilt of song--which broke off short as
he raised his eyes. Lilith was passing through, her tennis racket still
in her hand. Slightly flushed with he