Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/95

53 THE PICKWICK C:LUb. 53

The lethargic youth contrived without any additional rousing, to set out two card-tables; tlie one for Pope Joan, and the other for whist. The whist-players were, Mr. Pickwick and the old lady ; Mr. Miller and the fat gentleman. The round game comprised the rest of the company.

The rubber was conducted with all that gravity of deportment, and sedateness of demeanour, which befit the pursuit entitled "whist" — a solemn observance, to which, as it appears to us, the title of " game " has been very irreverently and ignominiously applied. The round-game table on the other hand, was so boisterously merry, as materially to interrupt the contemplations of Mr. Miller, who not being quite s much absorbed as he ought to have been, contrived to commit various high crimes and misdemeanours, which excited the wrath of the fat gentleman to a very great extent, and called forth the good-humour of the old lady in a proportionate degree.

" There! " said the criminal Miller triumphantly, as he took up the odd trick at the conclusion of a hand ; " that could not have beei played better, I flatter myself; — impossible to have made another trick!"

"Miller ought to have trumped the diamond, oughtn't he Sir?" said the old lady.

Mr. Pickwick nodded assent.

" Ought I, though ? " said the unfortunate, with a doubtful appeal to his partner.

" You ought Sir/' said the fat gentleman in an awful voice.

" Very sorry," said the crest-fallen Miller.


 * ' Much use that," growled the fat gentleman.

" Two by honours — makes us eight," said Mr. Pickwick.

Another hand. " Can you one?" inquired the old lady.


 * I can," replied Mr. Pickwick. " Double, single, and the rub.**

" Never was such luck," said Mr. Miller.

" Never was such cards," said the fat gentleman.

A solemn silence ; Mr. Pickwick humorous, the old lady serious, the fat gentleman captious, and Mr. Miller timorous.

" Another double," said the old lady : triumphantly making a memo- randum of the circumstance, by placing one sixpence and a battered halfpenny, under the candlestick.

" A double, Sir," said Mr. Pickwick.


 * Quite aware of the fact. Sir," replied the fat gentleman, sharply.

Another game, with a similar result, was followed by a revoke from the unlucky Miller; on which the fat gentleman burst into a state of high personal excitement which lasted until the conclusion of the game, when he retired into a corner, and remained perfectly mute f«>r one hour and twenty-seven minutes; at the end of which time, he emerged from his retirement, and offered Mr. Pickwick a pinch of snuff with the air of a man who had made up his mind to a Christian forgive- ness of injuries sustained. The old lady's hearing decidedly improved, and the unlucky Miller felt as much out of his element, as a dolphin in a sentry-box.

Meanwhile the round game proceeded right merr'i Isabella Wardle

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