Aunt Hester still felt cunning; she thought she might be able to bundle it up in the last trick. “But I ain’t got a club, Colin,” she said, reverting to mid-Victorian speech.
“Darling Aunt Hester, you mean ‘haven’t,’” said Colin. “‘Ain’t’ means ‘aren’t,’ and it isn’t grammar even then, though you are my aunt. ‘Ain’t....’”
Lord Yardley, leaning forward, pulled Colin’s hair. It looked so golden and attractive, it reminded him.... “Colin, are you dummy, or ain’t you?” he asked.
“Certainly, father. Can’t you see Aunt Hester’s playing the hand? I shouldn’t call it playing, myself. I should call it playing at playing. Club, please, Aunt Hester.”
“Well, if you’re dummy, hold your tongue,” said Lord Yardley. “Dummy isn’t allowed to speak, and....”
“Oh, those are the old rules,” said Colin. “The new rules make it incumbent on dummy to talk all the time. Hurrah, there’s Aunt Hester’s club, aren’t it? One revoke, and a penalty of three tricks....”
“Doubled,” said his father.
“Brute,” said Colin, “and no honours at all! Oh yes, fourteen to us above. Well played, Aunt Hester! Wasn’t it a pity? Your deal, Vi.”
Colin, having cut the cards, happened to look up at the big vase of flowers which stood close to the table. As he did so, there was a trivial glimmer, as of some paper just stirred, behind it. He had vaguely thought that Uncle Ronald and Raymond had both gone to the smoking-room, but there was certainly some one there, and which of the two it was he had really no idea. Every one else, adversaries and partner, was behaving as if there was no one else in the room, so why not he?
“Raymond’s got the hump this evening,” he said cheerfully. “He won at whist—Lord, what a game!—because I saw Aunt Janet pay him half-a-crown with an extraordinarily acid expression, and ask for change. So as he’s won at cards, he will be blighted in love. I expect he’s had a knock from the young thing at the tobacconist’s in King’s Parade. I think she likes me best, father. But it’ll be the same daughter-in-law. She breathes through her nose, and is marvellously genteel. Otherwise she’s just like Violet.”