She: "Oh! was that trumps? I must take it back. Pray, let me take it back."
We all recover our cards. (My partner takes this occasion to drop some of his on the floor. He picks them up and arranges them again in order.)
"Your turn, Countess!" we cry, exhausted.
She: "What, again! Why does some one else not play?"
Then out comes the ace of diamonds.
Some one said, "You have all the aces."
She: "Oh! not all; I have not the ace of hearts."
Her partner, aghast, begs her not to tell us what her other cards are, and so the game proceeds to the bitter end.
There were other moments funny beyond words especially when Mr. Beaumont's English fails to cope with the situation and he will try to discuss the points where the Countess has failed. He says, "Did you not see he put his king on your spade ace-spot?" and, "Madame, you played the third of spades." And when we count honors, Beaumont will cover the table with his great elbows and enumerate his: "I had the ass, the knight, and the dame."
I heard a suppressed chuckle from my father-in-law, and seemed to see a vision of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza pass before me.