Cricket 1893

NOV. 30, 1893 CRICKETs A WEEKLY BECOR1? OF THE GAME. 459 For Johnny was not in the way of under­ valuing his powers of persuasion. Fortune favoured him. Lois was at the Hall gates: she had come down to meet him. with a fleecy shawl thrown over her dark wavy hair, and one creamy rose nestling at her white throat—as lovely a little woman as one might see in a long week’s march. Johnny had determined to be severe. He opened mildly, however. “ Well, Precious, what is it ? ” “ Did you win, Johnny ? ” “ Yes, we did. But we shall never wia another match.” “ Never win—what are you talking about, you dear old silly ? ” “ I mean just what I say. Rushfield’s going to chuck the game ; and we’re no gocd with­ out him.” “ Oh ! he didn’t get a hundred, then ! ” But before the word had left her lips Lois went on a sudden rosy-red. She could feel the blush spreading right round to the back of her neck. Of course she had no idea that Johnny knew of that rash vow of Bert’s : but she was dreadfully afraid she might have made him suspicious, and—well, Johnny’ s persuasion was of so masterly a type. But he knew all about it, you see; so he answered quietly: “ No, he didn’t; and it remains for yon to come to the rescue of Westmoor.’ , “ In me to come—Oh, what do you mean, Johnny ? ” He caught her up in his strong arms—they were half-way do77n the garden now—and lifted her on to one shoulder before he answered. Johnny was very short, but he was wonderfully strong; and, after all, Lois was but a featherweight. “ There now : I shan’ t let you down till yon have promised to obey me. And don’t give me any more of your very transparent humbug, because you know very well what I mean, and I won’t stand it. Do you hear, Precious ? ” “ I hear, Johnny.’’ She pushed his straw hat back, and brushed the tangled hair away from his forehead, looking down at him with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “ But, really—what do you mean ? ” “ Am I to put it in plain words, then ? Well—don’t you feel ashamed of yourself for saying No four times to old Bert ? ’’ She leaned over to look him in the face till one would have thought her in imminent danger of falling, but she had all faith in those strong arms of Johnny’ s. “ Not a little bit—not ever such a tiny little bit,” she said, with a charming little shake of the head, and then pressed her rosy lips tightly together. He put her down, and stood holding her at arm’s length, looking her full in the eyes. She had not seen Johnny look so fierce for a long time; and the pretty face began to falter, and tears welled up into the lovely grey eyes. “ Precious, you don’t mean that you are going to be rough on old Bert, do you ? I m sure you must love him ; you can’t help that. And he—why, he’s ready to kiss the very ground you walk on.” The pretty face becamo radiant again. Such an April face as it was ! But Johnny saw a ray of hope for Bert in that smile, and was encouraged to go on. Surely—he didn’t know much about girls, it’s tru e; they weren’t in his line, he used to say—but surely she wouldn’t be glad to know Bert loved her if she didn’t care for him ? “ You’ll find it out too late, perhaps, old lady ! when Ida Dorrington has hooked him, you’ll wish you hadn’t been such a little fool 1” The face was stormy now, and full of indig­ nation; and a tiny foot was stamped on the ground. “ Johnny, you are de'.estable ! Bert dcesn’t care for that Dorrington g irl!—he doesn’t !— he doesn’t ! ” “ What’s the odds to you, if you don’fc^care about him ? Look here,Precious, I ’m serious : you are spoiling old Bert’s life. What else do you think could make him chuck cricket ? And Wragg, the county secretary, is over here to-day to ask him to play against Broad- landshire on Monday ! ! And he swearing he’ll go out to the bran:h in America ! ” “ Who, Johnny?—Mr. W ragg? ” “ Lois, I’m in earnest.” (She knew he was, then: Johnny had to be very much an­ noyed with her before he dropped the pet name that be had given her years ago). “ You’re trampling on the love of the best fellow in the world, and the most unselfish. Do you know what he did to-day? I don’t think there’s another man in England would have done i t ! You asked if he scored a hundred. No, he didn’t: he scored ninety- nine. And he threw away his wicket to let that young ass, Squires, get his hundred!” Johnny was not prepared for what followed. For Lois burst into a passion of tears. She loved him ! she loved him ! she owned that to herself now. She thought of his woe­ begone face as he stood in the shade of the old oak tree, and remembered what he had said. And, belonging as she did to a family of cricketers, she understood better than most girls what a century means to a man who loves cricket. Herself unselfish, she knew how to appreciate Bert’s unselfishness. To give up so much for that boy ! Who but Bert would have done it ? But was it all for that boy! Wasn’t it partly for her, too—because he loved her so well that, without her, he didn’ t care even for cricket ? It was sweet to think that she had so much power over him. But there was a little bitter in the sweet now that she knew she loved him. She could not tell Johnny. How could a girl tell even her best brother such a thing as that? A new shyness had come over her with this new feeling. She broke from Johnny’s hold—relaxed because of her crying—and ran into the house. When she stole downstairs twenty minutes later, having effaced most of the tear-marks, she heard Johnny laughing as she passed the door of the room where her youngest sister, Cicely, was attending to his manifold wants at the tea-table. She felt almost angry with him. How could be laugh while the man whose cause he had pleaded so effeotually was in such trouble ? It was quite an hour afterwards before she saw him again. All that time she had been waiting in the garden, her straw hat on ready to go out. Then Johnny came sauntering down the path, a cigar in his mouth, and his flannels exchanged for a suit of grey tweed. “ Are you going down the village, Johnny ?” she askecl, in suoh a meek little voice, that he hardly knew it. “ Y e s” “ May I come with you ?” “ Yes'” She stole her arm timidly through hie, and looked up into his face—not far up, for, petite as she was, Johnny and she were nearly on a level. “ You aren’ t very cross with me, are you, Johnny? ” Yes.” There was silence for a few minutes. Johnny’s cigar went out; and he stopped to relight it. “ Do you think he will play on Monday ? ” Surely that forlorn voice might have melted Johnny ! “ No.” • They had very nearly reached Homeville now. Just as they got up to the gates, who should come up the garden-parth but Rush- field, seeking consolation in an old briar-root, and finding none. He raised his hat, and would have let them pass on. But Johnny felt a pressure on his arm, and interpreted it rightly. He called Bert to h im ; and Rushfield, knocking the glowing tobacco out of his pipe, ranged himself alongside, but with Johnny between him and Lois. “ Seen Wragg ? ” ‘ Yes.” “ Going to play ? ” “ No.” “ You id iot! why, there he is. Hi, Wragg ! Take care of Precious a m inute; I ’m going to tell him you’ ve altered your mind.” And he ran off, leaving Bert too bewildered to expostulate. He looked at Lois. There was something in her face that was new to him. And there was a new note in her voice, too, as she said— oh, so meekly and imploringly : “ You will play, won’t you ? ” “ Lois, I can’t. Don’t you remember what I swore? You wouldn’t have me break my word, would you ? ” “ No ; but you didn’t mean it.” “ Yes, I did.” •*But if—” He looked down at the face that was so dear to him. It was wet with tears. And then— though he was only a man, and therefore dull- witted in suoh things beside her—he under­ stood. “ Oh, Lois, my darling, my love, this means that you are going to take pity on me at la st! ” It was a good thing that no one was near. For he caught her to his heart, and she made no struggle to free herself. Instead she did something highly unbecoming. His hand was very near her face. She kissed it. “ Do you want any other answer, Bert ? ” she asked tremulously. “ Will you play ■now ? ” “ Play, my darling, yes! But I shall be a lucky dog if I don’t get a pair of ’em. For I ’ll swear I shall be able to think of nothing else but your dear face.” Johnny was greeted when he came back by two of the happiest people in the world. His modesty did not prevent his taking a very great share of the credit for this satisfactory state of affairs. And neither Bert nor Lois was inolined at the moment to doubt that, as he said, he had done it all. But when some hours later, after a satisfac­ tory interview with Etheridge pere, Bert was saying good-night to Precious, she whispered, almost in her old saucy way: “ It wasn’t Johnny at all, B ert; you are not to be too grateful to him. I am jealous of Johnny now. It was that ninety-nine. If you had scored a hundred, I think I should have made you wait until your hair was grey and I was an ugly wrinkled old woman. But—oh, it was so lovely of you ; and I did sc want you to play for tbe county; and—what do you say, silly ? Yes, I do love you, very, very much indeed, dear!” * * * * Young Squires, who was only a clerk in the Rushfields’ office, though a gentleman born and bred, could never understand why the junior partner asked him to act as best man at the wedding that took place six months later. That was one of the proudest days of his life, though. A queer thought came into his head as Bert put the ring on Lois’ little white finger. “ I don’t think I could have askec him to be my best man if he had run me out at ninety-nine!” C o m ic C ricket .—B y the CocKney Sportsman Alec Nelson). A profusely illustrated and viva­ cious volume. Post free, 1/2. Wrlgfct & Co., 41, St. Andrew’s Hill, B.C. Can be had from all news­ agents or W. H. Smith’s bookstalls.