And Bill and Mrs. Harter just looked at one another, and if we hadn’t, all of us, known about them before, that look must have told us. Leeds was the only person who presumably saw nothing, for he went on to remind Mrs. Harter how badly screwed poor old Patterson had been that night in Egypt, and didn’t she remember his falling down the steps backwards?
“Good gracious!” said Dolly Kendal with all the fearful directness of the Kendals, “you must have known some funny people out there, Mrs. Harter.”
“Shall we cut for partners?” said Lady Annabel Bending very gently.
Mrs. Kendal does not play bridge, and she came and sat beside me, no doubt with the kindest intentions of enlivening me, but after observing three or four times that the picnic had been very well done, she gradually closed her eyes and ceased to say it. Mumma’s bulk was partly between me and the rest of the world, and I saw, as from the shadow of a great rock, what they were all doing, and it interested me. The people who were playing cards were almost altogether silent, as good players always are. Claire looked tense and eager, as she does over everything. It is nothing to her whether she wins at bridge or not, but it is everything whether she is thought to excel or not. As a matter of fact, she plays very well. General Kendal was her partner, and he is a good player, too.
Lady Annabel was playing with Leeds, and every now and then, at the end of a hand, his voice bellowed out encouragement or explanation, or even remonstrance.
“I can’t imagine why you didn’t back me up,” he said once. “A hand that positively screamed for a redouble—positively screamed for it.”
“I acted to the best of my judgment,” said Lady Annabel. “I thought at the time, and I still think, that I should not have been justified in redoubling.”
“But it would have given us the game! Listen to me,” commanded Leeds, most unnecessarily. “I led the spade....”
He proceeded to play the whole hand all over again, card by card. And at the end of it all Lady Annabel, drooping in a dignified way over the scattered packs, said that she did not really think she would have been justified in redoubling.
I suppose it was that spirit which made her the success that she undoubtedly was, in the days of H. E. Sir Hannabuss Tallboys.