THE FARAWAY CLUB

A cold, thick drizzle, blown by a biting wind that sent chills to the marrow, marred the early spring night, and kept indoors the few hardy members who had haunted the clubhouse since the season’s opening a week before.  Not more than a dozen loyal devotees to the sports of the open air lounged about the big clubhouse.  Three or four rangy young women in sweaters and jackets strove bravely to dispel the gloom of the night as it settled down upon the growling masculine majority.  The club steward hovered near, anxiously directing the movements of a silent and as yet undrilled corps of servants who flitted from group to group with decanters and checks, taking and mistaking orders with the usual abandon.  A huge fireplace threw out heat sufficient to make the big lounging room comfortable.  Now and then a spiteful gust of wind swept the rain against the western window-panes with a menace that set the teeth on edge.

“Rotten night,” reflected the big man who monopolised the roomiest chair and the best position in front of the blazing logs.  “Going to town to-night?” The question was general:  there were half a dozen answers.  Every one was going in by the last express.  All of them had dined well:  they had been hungry and the club was a wealthy one; even the most exclusive of appetites could be entertained at the Faraway Country Club.  The last ’bus was to leave the clubhouse at ten minutes past ten, and it was then half-past eight.  Ten minutes’ drive from the clubhouse on the edge of the little town to the railway station—­then thirty minutes to the heart of the big city in which the members lived and died at great risk to themselves.

Each succeeding spring saw the formal opening of the Faraway Country Club.  The boards were pulled down from the windows and the door hinges were oiled properly after a winter of discontent.  May saw the reopening, but it was not until June that crowds began to fill the house and grounds.  Only the more restless and hardy had the temerity to test the pleasures of the raw spring days and nights.  The M.F.H. was a loyal, eager chap; he knew what was required of him in his official capacity.  With the first symptoms of softening soil he led his followers through field and wood, promising the “real hunt” inside of a month.  Following a pack of overfed hounds was what every one at Faraway Club called a “real hunt.”

The night so meagrely described at the beginning of this tale followed hard upon a grey, chill day.  A few golfers had spent the afternoon upon the course, inanely cursing the temporary tees and greens.  A couple of polo enthusiasts tried out their ponies, and several men and women took their hunters over the course, that fairly bristled with spectres of last year’s anise-seed.  Now they were comfortably ensconced in the clubhouse, berating the unfortunate elements, and waiting for the last express with a persistency which allowed three or four earlier trains to come and go unnoticed.  The cheerful highball was coming into its own.  A stern winter of bridge had not killed the ardour of certain worshippers; continuous criticism of play arose from the table in the corner where two men and two women were engaged with the cards.