He thought that after this high moment he might be able to plan his life at least a little--not too minutely.
* * * * * Late that summer Merle and Patricia Whipple came by appointment to play the course with him.

Merle, too, had become a man--he would enter college that fall.

Apparently no one was bothering about the plan of his life.

And Patricia had become, if not a woman, at least less of a girl, though she was still bony and utterly freckled.

They drove off, Patricia not far but straight, and Merle, after impressive preliminaries that should have intimidated any golf ball, far but not straight.