'So-so,' said George. 'Not un-so-so. A man wants an addition to his
income when he is going to get married.'
'Ah!' I said. 'That, of course, will be the real test.'
'What do you mean?'
'Why, when you propose to Celia Tennant. You remember you were saying
when we spoke of this before--'
'Oh, that!' said George, carelessly. 'I've arranged all that.'
'What!'
'Oh, yes. On my way up from the station. I looked in on Celia about an
hour ago, and it's all settled.'
'Amazing!'
'Well, I don't know. I just put the thing to her, and she seemed to see
it.'
'I congratulate you. So now, like Alexander, you have no more worlds to
conquer.'
'Well, I don't know so much about that,' said George. 'The way it looks to
me is that I'm just starting. This eloquence is a thing that rather grows
on one. You didn't hear about my after-dinner speech at the anniversary
banquet of the firm, I suppose? My dear fellow, a riot! A positive
stampede. Had 'em laughing and then crying and then laughing again and
then crying once more till six of 'em had to be led out and the rest down
with hiccoughs. Napkins waving ... three tables broken ... waiters in
hysterics. I tell you, I played on them as on a stringed instrument....'
'Can you play on a stringed instrument?'
'As it happens, no. But as I would have played on a stringed instrument
if I could play on a stringed instrument. Wonderful sense of power it
gives you. I mean to go in pretty largely for that sort of thing in
future.'
'You must not let it interfere with your golf.'
He gave a laugh which turned my blood cold.
'Golf!' he said. 'After all, what is golf? Just pushing a small ball
into a hole. A child could do it. Indeed, children have done it with
great success. I see an infant of fourteen has just won some sort of
championship. Could that stripling convulse a roomful of banqueters? I
think not! To sway your fellow-men with a word, to hold them with a
gesture ... that is the real salt of life. I don't suppose I shall play
much more golf now. I'm making arrangements for a lecturing-tour, and
I'm booked up for fifteen lunches already.'
Those were his words. A man who had once done the lake-hole in one. A
man whom the committee were grooming for the amateur championship. I am
no weakling, but I confess they sent a chill shiver down my spine.
* * * * *
George Mackintosh did not, I am glad to say, carry out his mad project
to the letter. He did not altogether sever himself from golf. He was
still to be seen occasionally on the links. But now--and I know of
nothing more tragic that can befall a man--he found himself gradually
shunned, he who in the days of his sanity had been besieged with more
offers of games than he could manage to accept. Men simply would not
stand his incessant flow of talk. One by one they dropped off, until
the only person he could find to go round with him was old Major
