Spirit of the links

78 THE SPIRIT OF THE LINKS
she might wait if she chose until the game was com-
pleted, when he would attend to her, but that for the
time being he had no leisure for dinner. And the
game went on. So she came to loathe the very name
of golf, and was scarcely civil to the tavern customers
who were players and friends of her good man. But
one day she had a sweet revenge upon him. She set
out for a journey to Fife, and was expected to be
away for at least a day. No sooner was her back
turned than hospitable M`Kellar went forth to bid
his golfing friends to his house, which, when its lady
was in residence, they might in no wise enter. A
fine feast was prepared, and the party was a merry
one, when the door opened, and there stood, with a
countenance drawn with suppressed wrath, Mrs.
M`Kellar, who had been obliged to return, through
the ferry being impassable as a consequenee of the
severe weather that prevailed.
Every morning the "Cock o' the Green" hurried
through his breakfast, and away he went to
Bruntsfield Links with all the haste possible, never
returning home again until night had fallen.
Sometimes, indeed, he did not come then, if there
were any good golfing excuse for not doing so.
Many were the times when he was discovered
playing at the short holes by the dim glimmer of a.
lamp, and a moonlight night was an almost irresist-
ible temptation to him. Heat and cold did not
diminish his ardour; and in the winter, when the
snow covered the course, he would do his utmost to
persuade an opponent to share a round with him;
and if he failed he would go out alone and wander
the whole way round playing his ball from flag to
flag, the greens and holes not being discoverable.