A hundred times he had said to himself that afternoon, as he sat alone in the lovely park—­of which he had once said to Harold, he was to be the hare, and of whose possession in the future he had boasted to Jerrie—­that he did not care a sou, that he was glad she had refused him, for after all it was only an infatuation on his part; that the girl of the carpet-bag was not the wife for a Tracy; but the twinge of pain in his heart belied his words, and he knew he did love Jerrie Crawford better than he should ever again love any girl, whether the daughter of a governor or of the president.

’And I go to the party, too, just to show her that I don’t care, and for the sake of looking at her,’ he said.  ’She can’t help that, and it is a pleasure to look at a woman so grandly developed and perfectly formed as she is.  By Jove!  Hal Hastings is a lucky dog; but I shall hate him forever.’

So Tom pulled himself together, and went to Grassy Spring in a frame of mind not the most amiable; and when croquet was proposed, he sneered at it as something quite too passe, citing lawn tennis as the only decent outdoor amusement.

’Why, then, don’t you set it up on your grounds, where you have plenty of room, and ask us all over there?’ Dick asked, good-humoredly, as he began to get out the mallets and balls.

To this Tom did not reply, but said, instead: 

‘Count me out.  I don’t like the game, and there are enough without me.’

Just then Jerry appeared at the gate, and he added quickly: 

’Still, I don’t wish to be ungracious; and now Jerrie has come, we can have an eight hand.’

Hastening toward her, he met her as we have recorded, and claimed her for his partner.

‘Thank you, Tom,’ Jerrie said, with a bright smile on her face, which made the young man’s heart beat fast with both pleasure and pain, as he gave her the mallet and told her she was to play first.

Tom was making himself master of ceremonies, and Dick kept quiet and let him, and watched Jerrie admiringly as she made the two arches, and the third, and fourth, and then sent her ball out of harm’s way.  It was a long and closely contested game, for all were skilful players, except poor Ann Eliza, who was always behind and required a great deal of attention from her partner especially when it came to croqueting a ball.  She did not know exactly what to do, and kept her foot so long upon the ball that less amiable girls than Nina and Jerrie would have said she did it on purpose, to show how small and pretty it looked in her closely fitting French boot.  But Jerrie’s side beat, as it usually did.  She had become a ‘rover’ the second round, had rescued Tom from many a difficulty, and taken Ann Eliza through four or five wickets, besides doing good service to her other friends.

‘I p-p-propose three ch-cheers for Jerrie,’ Billy said, standing on his tiptoes and nearly splitting his throat with his own hurrah.