the balls were lying about; and then the party was so nicely made up!
"I haven't had a game of croquet yet," said Mr Crosbie. It cannot
be said that he had lost much time, seeing that he had only arrived
before dinner on the preceding day. And then the mallets were in
their hands in a moment.

"We'll play sides, of course," said Lily. "Bernard and I'll play
together." But this was not allowed. Lily was well known to be the
queen of the croquet ground; and as Bernard was supposed to be
more efficient than his friend, Lily had to take Mr Crosbie as her
partner. "Apollo can't get through the hoops," Lily said afterwards
to her sister; "but then how gracefully he fails to do it!" Lily,
however, had been beaten, and may therefore be excused for a little
spite against her partner. But it so turned out that before Mr
Crosbie took his final departure from Allington he could get through
the hoops; and Lily, though she was still queen of the croquet
ground, had to acknowledge a male sovereign in that dominion.

"That's not the way we played at--" said Crosbie, at one point of the
game, and then stopped himself.

"Where was that?" said Bernard.

"A place I was at last summer,--in Shropshire."

"Then they don't play the game, Mr Crosbie, at the place you were at
last summer,--in Shropshire," said Lily.

"You mean Lady Hartletop's," said Bernard. Now, the Marchioness
of Hartletop was a very great person indeed, and a leader in the