No one was sorry that the evening here came to an end.

'I hope,' said Dr. May at the Sunday's dinner, 'that the cricket
match has not done for that boy; I did not see him among the boys.'

'No,' said Mary, 'but he has met with some accident, and has the most
terrible bruised face. Ave can't make out how he did it. Do you
know, Aubrey?'

The Doctor and his two sons burst out laughing.

'I thought,' said Ethel, rather grieved, 'that those things had gone
out of fashion.'

'So Ethel's protege, or prodigy, which is it?' said Tom, 'is turning
out a muscular Christian on her hands.'

'Is a muscular Christian one who has muscles, or one who trusts in
muscles?' asked Ethel.

'Or a better cricketer than an Etonian?' added the Doctor.

Tom and Aubrey returned demonstrations that Eton's glory was
untarnished, and the defeat solely owing to 'such a set of sticks.'

'Aubrey,' said Ethel, in their first private moment, 'was this a
fight in a good cause? for if so, I will come down with you and see
him.'