Everything in the world must have an end, and Mrs. Scully's dance was no exception to the rule. Mrs. March, John and Meg, Jo and Beth, and all exulted over him with the sincere admiration which boys make light of at the time, but fail to win from the world by any after-triumphs. Signor Rodriguez, whom they knew to be the manager of the hotel, stood quite near them in the doorway surveying the scene--the gentlemen lounging in chairs, the couples leaning over coffee-cups, the game of cards in the centre under profuse clusters of electric light. The time has come to look for light and leading outside the confines of our own Book of Rules. Each time you stroke the cue ball to the left or right of center, some degree of english is applied. Helen and Rachel started to think that some one had been sitting near to them unobserved all the time.

However, Hume has just given us reason to think that we have no such satisfactory constituent ideas, hence the "inconvenience" requiring us to appeal to the "extraneous." This is not to say that the definitions are incorrect. We are all familiar with the huge strides that have been made by the introduction of the rubber-cored ball. No fielder inside the magic circle would be allowed to stop the ball with his feet. Should he be allowed to wear gloves? Granet turned the key in the lock, stood for a moment listening and swung slowly around. The major was so astonished at this point-blank question, that for a moment he sat speechless upon the sofa. The major lingered behind to bid farewell, and then rejoined his German friend, who had been compelled to wait at the door for the latchkey. She adopted, indeed, a condescending tone towards that poor island, which was now advancing chilly crocuses and nipped violets in nooks, in copses, in cosy corners, tended by rosy old gardeners in mufflers, who were always touching their hats and bobbing obsequiously.

Judged by the only true standard-the amount of space allotted to it in the daily press-it is manifest that the encroachments of this insidious pastime have now reached a point where the cricket reformer must bestir himself before it too late. If the major had contrived to win favour from Mrs. Lavinia Scully in the early part of the evening, what is billiards he managed now to increase any advantage he had gained. There was the major too, who had succeeded in obtaining Mrs. Scully as a partner, and was dancing as old soldiers can dance, threading his way through the crowded room with the ease begotten by the experience of a lifetime. Mrs. Scully smiled upon the German in a way that won his Teutonic heart. Mrs. Scully, with emotion. Granet explained, "and afterwards fell fast asleep in my room. Wonderful air, yours, you know," he went on. Granet leaned across the table to the secretary. Any player may sink any object ball on the table. An expert pool player, on the other hand -- well, he can just look at the billiards table and imagine lines drawn out, marking the trajectory the cue ball must take to make the shot.

ONE can very well understand this kind of pleasure in a summary way, but how is it to be made apparent? Taken by themselves the pastimes of society are not to be described: they are too ephemeral; their charm arises from their accompaniments. Very well. The same principle can be easily adapted to our requirements in the form of the Three Batsmen System. I know perfectly well that a man may feel unutterably nervous before he goes in to bat at cricket, but his nervousness goes when he has scored twenty runs, and been in half-an-hour. You play with the same cue at billiards, with the same bat at cricket, with the same mallet at croquet, with the same racquet at tennis, lawn-tennis, and racquets; golf is the only game in the world, as far as I know, where it is absolutely necessary to have a minimum number of five or six clubs to play a game with. The tingling of the batsman's fingers which might result could be neutralised by the use of a rubber-faced bat. The major and his hostess played against Captain Livingstone Tuck and an old gentleman who came from Lambeth, with the result that the gallant captain and his partner rose up poorer and sadder men, which was rather a blow to the former, who reckoned upon clearing a little on such occasions, and had not expected to find himself opposed by such a past master of the art as the major.