He worried so frightfully about it that on
the second nine he couldn't do a thing right. Went completely off his
game and didn't win a hole."
The Sage shook his head gravely.
"If this is really going to be a lesson to you, my boy, never to bet on
the result of a golf-match, it will be a blessing in disguise. There is
no such thing as a certainty in golf. I wonder if I ever told you a
rather curious episode in the career of Vincent Jopp?"
"_The_ Vincent Jopp? The American multi-millionaire?"
"The same. You never knew he once came within an ace of winning the
American Amateur Championship, did you?"
"I never heard of his playing golf."
"He played for one season. After that he gave it up and has not touched
a club since. Ring the bell and get me a small lime-juice, and I will
tell you all."
* * * * *
It was long before your time (said the Oldest Member) that the events
which I am about to relate took place. I had just come down from
Cambridge, and was feeling particularly pleased with myself because I
had secured the job of private and confidential secretary to Vincent
Jopp, then a man in the early thirties, busy in laying the foundations
of his present remarkable fortune.
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