and yet more
than half-inclined to quarrel with Branling, whom I overheard muttering
about my "cursed awkwardness." We were left in a fearful minority at the
close of the first innings, when we retired to dinner. The Glyndewi
party and their friends were evidently disappointed. I tried to avoid
Clara; but could not keep far from her. At last she came up with one of
her brothers, spoke and shook hands with me, said that her brother had
told her I was not well, and that she feared I ought not to have played
at all. "I wish you could have beat them, Mr Hawthorne--I had bet that
you would; perhaps you will feel better after dinner, those kind of
headachs soon wear off," she added with a smile and a kind look, which I
understood as she meant it. I walked into the tent where we were to
dine: I sat next a little man on the opposite side, an Englishman, one
of their best players, as active as a monkey, who had caught out three
of our men in succession. He talked big about his play, criticised
Willingham's batting, which was really pretty, and ended by discussing
Clara Phillips, who was, he said, "a demned fine girl, but too much of
her." I disliked his flippancy before, but now my disgust to him was
insuperable. I asked the odds against us, and took them freely. There
was champagne before me, and I drank it in tumblers. I did what even in
my under-graduate days was rarely my habit--I drank till I was
considerably excited. Hanmer saw it, and got the match resumed at once
to save me, as he afterwards said, "from making a fool of myself." I
insisted, in spite of his advice "to cool myself," upon going in first.
My flippant acquaintance of the dinner-table stood _point_, and I knew,
if I could but see the ball, and not see more than one, that I could
occasionally "hit square" to some purpose. I had the luck to catch the
first ball just on the rise, and it caught my friend _point_ off his
legs as if he had been shot. He limped off the ground, and we were
troubled with him no more. I hit as I never did before, or shall again.
At first I played wild; but as I got cool, and my sight became steady, I
felt quite at home. The bowlers got tired, and Dick Phillips, who had no
science, but the strength of a unicorn, was in with me half-an-hour,
slashing in all directions. It short, the tide turned, and the match
ended in our favour.

I was quite sober, and free from all excitement, when I joined Clara,
for the last time after the game was o