mixed doubles of young people had done exactly the same thing on exactly
the same spot at about the same time of year. The young people changed
and made way for others in the course of time, but very little else
seemed to alter. The present players were sufficiently conscious of the
social nature of the occasion to be concerned about their clothes and
appearance, and sufficiently sport-loving to be keen on the game. Both
their efforts and their appearance came under the fourfold scrutiny of a
quartet of ladies sitting as official spectators on a bench immediately
commanding the court. It was one of the accepted conditions of the
Rectory garden party that four ladies, who usually knew very little about
tennis and a great deal about the players, should sit at that particular
spot and watch the game. It had also come to be almost a tradition that
two ladies should be amiable, and that the other two should be Mrs. Dole
and Mrs. Hatch-Mallard.

"What a singularly unbecoming way Eva Jonelet has taken to doing her hair
in," said Mrs. Hatch-Mallard; "it's ugly hair at the best of times, but
she needn't make it look ridiculous as well. Some one ought to tell
her."

Eva Jonelet's hair might have escaped Mrs. Hatch-Mallard's condemnation
if she could have forgotten the more glaring fact that Eva was Mrs.
Dole's favourite niece. It would, perhaps, have been a more comfortable
arrangement if Mrs. Hatch-Mallard and Mrs. Dole could have been asked to
the Rectory on separate occasions, but there was only one garden party in
the course of the year, and neither lady could have been omitted from the
list of invitations without hopelessly wrecking the social peace of the
parish.

"How pretty the yew trees look at this time of year," interposed a lady