The instinctive cunning which never deserted him led him without any conscious effort to assume a pleasure in these things which, as a matter of fact, he found entirely meaningless.

It led him, too, to choose a retired spot for those periods of intensely close observation to which he every now and then subjected his host and the woman who was now his partner in the game.

What he saw entirely satisfied him.

Yet the way was scarcely clear.
They caught him up near one of the greens, and he stood with his hands behind him, and his eyeglass securely fixed, gravely watching them approach and put for the hole.

To him the whole performance seemed absolutely idiotic, but he showed no sign of anything save a mild and genial interest.