upil. I wish I could improve that rapidly."

Miss Harding smiled but declined to commit herself. Her second shot was
a three-quarter midiron to the green and she made it like a veteran. She
played the stroke--and it is one of the most difficult--in perfect form,
and I was so astounded that I cut under a short approach shot and had to
play the odd. She came within inches of going down in three, and I then
missed a long putt and lost the hole outright, she not needing the
stroke handicap.

"One up, Jacques Henri!" she laughed.

She drove another perfect ball on the next hole, but the green was three
hundred and fifty yards away and I reached it in two against her three.
My work on the green was abominable and we both were down in fives.

"Two up, Jacques Henri!" she exclaimed, her eyes dancing with
excitement. "Really, now, don't you think I've improved?"

"Improved!" I gasped. "That's not the word for it! You have been
translated into a golf magician! I cannot understand it!"

I don't suppose I played my best game, but even if I had I could not
have won at the odds stipulated. I never lose interest in a golf game,
but I must confess that I paid far more attention to her play than to my
own.

It was not the first time that I had witnessed a fine exhibition of golf
by a woman, but it was the first time I had been privileged to see a
strikingly pretty girl execute shots as they should be made. All former
experiences had led me to the belief that feminine beauty and
proficiency in golf run in adverse ratio. But here was a superb creature
who combined beauty with a skill which was surpassing.

It was difficult to believe the testimony of my own eyes. Here was a
girl who had taken fifteen to make the first hole of Woodvale only a few
weeks preceding; who had driven eight of my new balls into a pond which
demanded only an eighty-yard carry; who had told me that the one
ambition of her golfing life was to drive a ball far enough so that she
might have difficulty in finding it; who had repeatedly missed strokes
entirely, had mutilated the turf, sliced, pulled and committed all the
faults and crimes possible to a novice--here was this same young lady
playing a game which was well-nigh perfect to the extent of her
strength!

When a woman is beautiful and plays a beautiful game of golf, then
physical grace reaches its highest exemplification. Even an ugly woman
becomes attractive when she swings a driving club with an even