The herald., 1893-02-27
THEIR LlTTLE GAME.
It May Have Been a Joke on His Lordship,
but He Liked tt

1t May Have Been aJolxe on His Lordship,
but He Liked 1t.
A certain Englishman, who may be known
as Lord c., was visiting an American
city where society received him with open
arms at the same time that 1t aclcnowl-
edged in private the extreme difficulty il
found in entertaining him. His lordship
would not talk; perhaps be could not At
any rate he showed very little interest in
most topics of conversation, and seemed
deplorably obtuse to the point OF a good
story Only one person, a brilliant woman
named Mrs. A., had the least success in
waking him TO O srrnblance Of conversar
tiopal life, and she was consequently sad
died with the task Of amusing him at what
ever gathering they appeared
Lord c. will take you out to dinper,'
my dear" her hostess would whisper.
"Now do your best to amuse him, won't
you, for do want the dinner to be O sue
cess, and his long silences are SO depress-
ingp'
At first the situation was rather amusing
to the victim so constantly laid ON the block
of conversation, but there came time
when she was heartily tired Of It, and
frankly acknowledged to herself that she
was "taiked QUIZ
Time went on, however, as time has O
way Of doing and one evening came the
farewell dinner TO Lord c.. He was to
leave town the next morning, and his host
ess sought out his entertainer with the well
worn request,
''Now do make him talk, dear. He will
sit beside you as usual
But Mrs. A. had O headache, and
moreover her wits had deserted her. She
had talked of everything with this hon
comnittal man, from the house Of lords to
fox hunting, and she felt Absolutely hope.
less Of finding another subject In which he
might take even fleeting interest. A
bright idea occurred to her, and she said
to him, in q low tone, as soon as they were
seated at table:
II have headache tonight, and it doesn't
seem to me that can talk, Yet we must
say something or be thought very peculiar,
so will turn to you and say in an ami
mated tone, 'One-two-three9' You can
reply, with great earnestness, Four--fve-
sixp
II will become argumentative and assert,
'Seven--eight-nin and you can
gently contradict me by counting up to
twenty. So we can continue for whole
evening, without having to exert ourselves
to think"
The tdee struck the Englishrnan as being
exceedingly funny, and the plan was forth
with carried out. The lady was animated,
the gentleman amused. In fact, he broke
into such outlaws of laughter that the rest
of the table ceased talking TO listen, but in
vain. Both were discreet, and at such
crises counted in almost inaudible tones.
After dinner, so delighted was Lord
c. with the game that he insisted on
following his companion into corner and
playing it until 10 o'clock, when he left her
exhausted but triumphant. He had no
sooner gone than his hostess rushed over to
Mrs A. and exclaimed.
''How did you do it' May ask what
reused him to such interests'
But the culprit 3hook her head seriously
and replied, 1T was entirely confidential /"
The story was too good to keep, however,
and she told it to several intimate friends.
One of them, a young man who did not
know the Englishman in question, once re-
peated it in Canadian household where he
was visitor. He did not scruple to set
forth the Englishman's general obtuseness
and density, and when be had finished a
gentleman whose name he had not caught
said with quiet emphasis:
''She may have been making game of me,
but it was the pleasentest evening I ever
spent in my life and 1 forgive her."
1t was Lord c., and the abashed young
man could not help feeling that his lord
ship had the better of it.-Youth's Com
panion ...e ar