Intwelve years one general principle has been faintly upheld, while three have been stretched on the rack and distorted till their own mothers would scarcely know them.
If poor Mathews were to revisit the glimpsesof the moon, and to come across thatimprovededition of Clay, could he ever guess that the ricketty abortion in the preface had ever been his own healthy and intelligent bantling?
Whist-players of every degree, from Deschapelles to Mrs. Juggins, are now all supposed to lead the same card—I know they try; for, after much anxious thought, I have often seen the penultimate led from king, queen and three small cards—and with such a hand as this: ace, king, queen, knave of diamonds; two, three, four, five, six and seven of hearts; two and three of clubs; and the deuce of spades (trumps), whatever the score, if Deschapelles were to lead the king of diamonds, and Mrs. Juggins the four of hearts, according to our latest teaching, the old woman would receive the gold medal for scientific play, while Deschapelles would not be in it.
More than that, although while Mrs. Juggins was making futile attempts to establish her longsuit, and to explain she held originally six, several diamonds would probably be discarded, and she would be in danger of never making a trick at all; the apparent end of conventions, philosophy and American leads being not to make tricks, but to enable the table to count your hand, the award would be right.
Twelve years has the mountain been in labour, and, as Miss Squeers remarked, with ungrammatical emphasis, “this is
THE HEND.”
—————————————————————G. E. WATERS, 97, WESTBOURNE GROVE, LONDON.
Transcriber’s Note:Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.The printer was inconsistent in using terminal punctuation after a player’s initial. This was retained as printed.Page 60, repeated word “with” removed from text (with considerable trepidation)The book cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
The printer was inconsistent in using terminal punctuation after a player’s initial. This was retained as printed.
Page 60, repeated word “with” removed from text (with considerable trepidation)
The book cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.