_Miss V._ Whose lead is it now?

_Colonel G._ If it isn't yours it must be Mr. Talbot's, as you decide about that trick.

_Mr. T._ Then I'll lead a spade, and you can trump it.

_Miss V._ There, that's better than having that trump wasted on your ace.

_Mrs. V._ Did you ever play Stop? We played it last summer at Bar Harbor. It's a Western game, and you have chips, just like poker; and then you stop it if you have the stop cards; and sometimes you'll have the meanest little cards left in your hands, and if it is the ace of diamonds you have to pay five chips for it, or the king, or the queen, or the knave, or the ten; not so much, of course, but it all counts up awfully fast.

_Mr. T._ Why, that is ever so much like Sixty-six. Do you remember the time we tried to play Sixty-six on the Bar Harbor boat, Miss Vaughn?

_Miss V._ Oh, yes; and Ethel Mott _was_ such fun. She just would cheat, and there was no stopping her.

_Colonel G._ It is your lead, Miss Vaughn.

_Mrs. V._ Oh, just wait a moment. I want to know if fourth best has anything to do with playing fourth hand?

_Colonel G._ Nothing whatever.

_Mr. T._ Oh, fourth best is one of those things they've put in to make whist scientific. For my part, I don't think there's any fun--

_Miss V._ That's just what I say. When I play whist I want to have a good time, and not feel as if I were going through an examination at a scientific school. Oh, did you know we are going to have a whist figure at Janet Graham's german, Mr. Talbot? Won't that be fun?

_Mr. T._ I am sure then that you'll be trump.

_Miss V._ Thank you.

_Mrs. V._ How pretty!

_Colonel G._ It is your lead, Miss Vaughn.

_Miss V._ Why, did I take the last trick? What shall I--oh, I know,--the ace of clubs.

_Mrs. V._ The two-spot of diamonds ought to be good for that.

_Miss V._ How horrid! Now the rest of my clubs aren't any good. Well, any way, I can throw them away.

_Mrs. V._ Have hearts been led?

_Mr. T._ I'm sure I can't remember.

_Miss V._ (_examining tricks_). Yes, here's one heart trick.

_Mrs. V._ Well, I must lead it, and I'm sure I don't remember about it at all. I'll lead a small one. Was that right, Colonel Graham?

_Colonel G._ You might have led your knave.

_Mrs. V._ Why, how did you know I had the knave. I declare, it's like witchcraft, the way you keep run of the cards. I suppose you know where every card is. Who took that?

_Colonel G._ I did.

_Mr. T._ I ought to have trumped that, but I do hate to trump second hand.

_Colonel G._ But you played suit.

_Mr. T._ So I did. I forgot that.

_Colonel G._ (_showing hand_). The rest of the tricks are mine.

_Miss V._ Why, I have the king and queen of clubs, and you haven't a club in your hand.

_Colonel G._ That is why the tricks are mine. I can keep the lead to the end. I am very sorry, Mrs. Vaughn; but I am suddenly attacked with a nervous headache, so that I cannot possibly go on playing. I shall have to ask to be excused.

_Mrs. V._ Oh, don't break up the game when we are getting along so well.

_Colonel G._ I am very sorry; but I must go. I have enjoyed the game extremely.

_Mr. T._ Are you out?

_Colonel G._ Yes.

_Mrs. V._ I'm sure it was all owing to you.

_Colonel G._ It was all owing to the fall of the cards. I haven't done anything.

_Miss V._ I'm sure we didn't have anything on our side at all. I hate whist anyway; you have to be so quiet, and study on it so.

_Mr. T._ Yes, I think it's awfully hard work.

_Colonel G._ Oh, you'll have better luck next time. Good-by; don't rise.

[_And the Colonel goes to the club to relieve his mind by a quant.i.ty of vigorous expletives, and then to settle down to an evening of what he calls real whist._]

Tale the Third.

SAUCY BETTY MORK.

SAUCY BETTY MORK.

I.

"But, Miss Bessie--"