"Double bézique!"
"There, you have let Monsieur Clairval make five hundred!"
"I couldn't prevent him, could I?"
"Certainly you could: there were only three tricks left, and you had two aces of trumps."
"Well! that makes only two tricks."
"I would have taken the third with my ace."
"Ah! so you think we could have prevented monsieur from counting his five hundred?"
"That's plain enough. I don't see that you're any stronger at this game than at whist."
"I certainly wouldn't play for five hundred francs a game, like your son-in-law! But I didn't know that there was any skill in bézique; I thought it was all luck."
"You see that it isn't! Indeed, any game can be played well or ill."