It was Adriana who was blinded, and on the faith of their agreement, she went quietly groping about for almost a quarter of an hour; meantime, the other rogues all passed the lawn, and mischievously left her to seek them in vain. When she found out the trick she was almost angry, and even Madame D’Hernilly reproached the others gravely for having broken their express agreement.
Ernestina proposed that they should play at a game, the movements of which do not
require much activity; it is blindman’s buff with the wand. “What is that?” cried Valeria. “Oh,” said the frolicksome Ernestina, “I will soon shew you.”
They hastened to gather from the banks of a little rivulet which ran through a garden laid out in the English taste, a pliant branch of a weeping willow; they stripped it of all its leaves, and left it about a foot and a half long. They were proceeding to draw lots to ascertain in the usual way who should be blinded; when Ernestina, who was very good-natured, offered of her own accord to take the disagreeable part of the blind one: the others accordingly put a bandage over her eyes, and made sure that she could not see, when they gave her the wand to hold. Each of the others then took hold by turns of the opposite end of the wand, they put it to their lips and whispered a few words, endeavouring at the same time to disguise their voices. Ernestina who had proposed the game, and who was supposed to be well acquainted with it, became the victim of her good-nature, for she remained a long time unable to guess at any of the whisperers; she was lucky enough, however, to succeed at last, and each of the others were obliged to submit to be blinded in their turn.
Adriana shewed a good deal of cleverness at this game, and managed for a long time to avoid being caught; at last, the one who was blinded contrived by a little sly trick to
make her betray herself. She threw her off her guard, and in her surprise, she spoke without disguising her voice; she was consequently immediately recognised, and triumphantly seized. It was Ernestina who played this trick, which Adriana resolved should not pass unrevenged, and accordingly she made use of every effort to catch Ernestina, who being the cleverest of the party contrived for a long time to escape. Adriana might easily have seized upon Adela, or Valeria, but it was Ernestina only that she wished to catch, and at last she succeeded.
When Ernestina’s eyes were bandaged, Adriana went to Madame D’Hernilly, who had till then remained seated at some distance without taking any share in the game, but at the desire of Adriana, she now drew near and held the wand. While she thus stood facing Ernestina, she remained silent, and the adroit Adriana, who was close to her, muttered a few words, interrupted every now and then by a titter. As Ernestina knew nothing of Madame D’Hernilly’s holding the wand, she guessed repeatedly, but always in vain. At last, wearied out with her ill luck, she declared she gave it up, and Adriana to complete her little revenge, acknowledged the stratagem she had practised, saying, “So you see, Ernestina, the plotter is caught in his own trap.” This joke terminated their sport at blindman’s buff, but as it was yet too early for them to retire to their
apartments, they determined to finish the evening with another game; and they made choice of Hot-cockles. Madame D’Hernilly, who wished to put an end to their little tricks of deceiving and cheating one another, practices which we hope our young readers will condemn as being highly improper, determined to play herself the part of the confessor; each of the young people came in succession, and placing her hand upon Madame D’Hernilly’s lap, spread her right hand upon her back, and remained in this position which is called, being the penitent, till she could guess who struck her.
The rules of this game are extremely simple, but there is one precaution necessary in playing it, that of not striking too violently. Excesses of this sort were not much to be apprehended where the players were all young ladies; however, we must confess, that some of them felt inclined to give heavy blows; Madame D’Hernilly, who saw this, took great care to rein in their impetuosity. She obliged them also to the strict observance of the rules, one of which was, that two persons should never strike at the same time. Whenever this happened, the person who gave the last blow, ought to take the place of penitent; and Madame D’Hernilly took care always to inflict the penalty with inflexible severity.