by this I do not mean that it is an easy game to play well--far from it.
But a rudimentary idea of it suffices to give any one a good deal of
healthy exercise and enjoyment, and provided that one is keen and wishes
to improve, and possesses what is known as a good games' eye, there is
no reason why advance should not be rapid. It is also a pastime in which
women can combine with and compete against men without in any way
spoiling the game; and mixed doubles, to which I refer, are perhaps the
most popular department with the average spectator. I think I am not
wrong in saying that there is no other game at the present time in which
this combination of the sexes does not tend to minimize the enjoyment of
the player and the interest of the spectator. A mixed foursome at golf
is poor sort of fun for the man, unless the ladies are quite
first-class; the game is rather spoilt for him. Mixed hockey is an
abomination; splendid sport absolutely spoiled for both sexes. But a
mixed double at lawn tennis seems like a distinct game, so different is
it to the other forms of lawn tennis and so well adapted to the
combination of both sexes.

Then it is asserted that strenuous games mar the appearance of girls.
This charge was very deliberately brought against hockey for women some
little time ago in an influential London journal, and was rightly and
promptly answered by a spirited article with illustrations of some
well-known lady hockey players--proof positive of the fallacy that
hockey damaged their appearance. I am afraid most of these contortions
are the product of the snapshot camera. It must be remembered that
instantaneous photographs show players of games as they are really never
seen. Girls are doubtless in the ungraceful position represented for a
fraction of a second; but the time is too short for the eye to see,
although the camera, worse luck, catches the view, and what is more,
registers it for ever! Though a girl should always try to be as neat and