200 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xi 



make trial of what is known as scientific 

 croquet, an absurd game with boundaries 

 and all kinds of needless difficulties. He 

 rapidly became an enthusiast and less rapidly 

 something of an expert ; and in exact pro- 

 portion as his reputation as a player in- 

 creased so did his value as a social unit 

 decline, and at last all the ladies in the 

 neighbourhood refused to play with him 

 because his language was so unnerving. 

 But when he was not engaged in playing 

 croquet, a thing which became somewhat 

 rare, those who were intimate with him said 

 he was still the well-mannered man he had 

 ever been. I suppose he belonged to that large 

 class of Englishmen who cannot endure to 

 be beaten, a virtue no doubt in great matters, 

 but in small ones something of a nuisance. 



Cricket is exhausting ; at least I suppose 

 it is the cricket that makes me feel so 

 commonplace. I am dropping into that 

 condition in which a man might easily 

 compose moral maxims and glory in so 

 doing. That I will never permit while I 

 can help it, therefore for a while I will 

 think and say no more. 



