I began to wonder if I were making some
breach of Canadian etiquette of which I was ignorant. True, I had
eaten my porridge and cream without sprinkling the dish with a surface
of sugar as he had done; I had set aside the fried potatoes which had
been served to me with my bacon and eggs;--but these, surely, were
trivial things and of no interest to any one but myself.

At last, he rose and walked out, sucking a wooden toothpick. With his
departure, I forgot his existence.

After I had breakfasted, I sought the lounge room in order to have a
look at the morning paper and, if possible, determine what I was going
to do for a living and how I was going to get what I wanted to do.

I was buried in the advertisements, when a genial voice with a nasal
intonation, at my elbow, unearthed me.

It was my observer of the dining-room. He had seated himself in the
chair next to mine.

"Say! young man,--you'll excuse me; but was it you I saw come in last
night with the bag of golf clubs?"

I acknowledged the crime.

He laughed good-naturedly.

"Well,--you had courage anyway. To sport a golfing outfit here in the
West is like venturing out with breeches, a walking cane and a monocle.
Nobody but an Englishman would dare do it. Here, they think golf and
cricket should be bracketed along with hopscotch, dominoes and
tiddly-winks; just as I used to fancy baseball was a glorified kids'
game. I know better now."

I looked at him rather darkly.

"Oh!--it's all right, friend,--it takes a man to play baseball, same as
it takes a man to play golf and cricket. Golfing is about the only
vice I have left. Why, now I come to think of it, my wife clipped a
lot of my vices off years ago, and since that my daughter has succeeded
in knocking off all the others,--all but my cigars, my cocktails and my
golf. I'm just plumb crazy on the game and I play it whenever I can.
Maybe it's because I used to play it when I was a little chap, away
back in England years and years ago."

"I am glad you like the game," I put in. "It is a favourite of mine."

"I play quite a bit back home in Baltimore," he continued, "that's when
I'm there. My clubs arrived here by express yesterday. You see, it's
like this;--I'm off to Australia at the end of the week, on a business
trip,--that is, if I get things settled up here by that time. I am
crossing over from there to England, where I shall be for several
months. England is some place for golf, so