Page:Wilson - The Boss of Little Arcady (1905).djvu/362

 "But there isn't any 'over here,'" I exclaimed in some irritation. "There can only be eight cards in a row—that would make nine."

"Yes, but then you could play up all the others so beautifully—just see!"

"Is this a game," I asked, "or a child's crazy play?"

"Then it's an exceedingly stupid game if you can't do a little thing like that when it's absolutely necessary. What is the sense of it?"

Her eyes actually flashed into mine as she leaned at my side pointing out this simple way to victory.

"What's the sense of any rules to any game on earth?" I retorted. "If I hadn't learned to respect rules—if I hadn't learned to be thankful for what the game allows me, however little it may be—" I paused, for the water was deeper than I had thought.

"Well?"

"Well—well then—I shouldn't be as thankful as I am this instant for—for many things that I can't have more of."

She straightened herself and favored me with a curious look that melted at last into a puzzling smile.

"I don't understand you," she said. With a shade more of encouragement in her voice I had been near to forgetting my honor as a truce-observing enemy. I was grateful, indeed, afterwards, that her wish to understand me was not sufficiently implied to bring me thus low.

"Neither do I understand the morbid psychology