CYTHEREA.




JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER




_For _ DOROTHY
_Charming in the present and
Secure with the past _




I

It was, probably, Lee Randon realized, the last time he would play golf
that year. He concluded this standing on a shorn hill about which the
country was spread in sere diminishing tones to the grey horizon.
Below, a stream held a cold glimmer in a meadow of brown, frost-killed
grass; and the wind, the bitter flaws where Lee stood, was thinly
scattered with soft crystals of snow. He was alone, no one would play
with him so late in the season, and there had been no boy present to
carry his clubs. Yes, this was the last time he'd try it until spring:
Peyton Morris, who had married Lee's niece and was at least fourteen
years his junior, had been justified in a refusal which, at its
expression, had made Lee cross.