At Wimbledon

The Queen of England waited beside Court No. 1. Her shapely hands were folded in her lap, her pale eyes looked politely down at the green square of turf whereon the person she awaited would shortly appear. "Shortly," officials assured her, bending anxiously over the back of the Royal Box; "a l'instant," said agitated Jean Borotra, hurrying up to explain. The Queen waited, the crowd waited, the green square of turf waited --but Suzanne Lenglen did not come.

An hour later, when her match with Mrs. O. J. Dewhurst, a second-rank English player, had been definitely postponed, she drove up in an open Rolls Royce, sent her apologies to the Queen. She had not felt like playing, she said. Then, amid lusty English boos, she drove off. Said the London Daily News: "By being indisposed, Mile Lenglen has created a bigger sensation than if Poincare had publicly embraced Caillaux."

Next day, paired with little Mlle. Didi Vlasto, she played three listless sets against Mary K. Browne and Elizabeth Ryan, won the first, lost the next two and the match. She showed small interest in the game or its result. Fearless Whigs began to whisper that she might not be faking--she might really have something the matter. In the singles, Molla Mallory beat Joan Fry of England, Mlle. H. Conto-slavos of France beat Mrs. Marion Jessup, and Mlle. Lenglen, after displaying a physician's certificate that forbade her to take part in any vigorous match, beat the unknown Mrs. Dewhurst, 6-2, 6-3.

Few watched the men's matches. Leaping, smashing, ricocheting Henri Cochet, new champion of France, beat Vincent Richards in five sets, just as he did in Paris three weeks ago, adding new force to the prophesy that France will win the Davis cup this year. Nobody cared. They wanted to see Mlle. Lenglen, actually applauded her when she strolled off the court with Borotra after having defeated a young Englishman and his lady. Borotra told the press that rheumatism in Mlle. Lenglen's neck and shoulders kept her from sleeping. "She is very ill ... she cries all the time . . . her mother cannot pacify her. . . ." Miss Ryan, too, fell ill, cancelled her matches. Nobody suggested that her illness was fantasy, for her temperature was only 101. Mlle. Lenglen's was 102.