The Mena weekly star., 1909-04-01
She Answered After a Pause: "There Was Gen. Philemon Mercer, Con. federate Army"

l used to hear of your whist triumphs; how did you happen to take to whist?"
 To fill up the time, I reckon. I be- gan it years ago. Now a soldiers life is a great deal more varied, because a man will be shifted around and get a show of tho different kinds of service. And there are the exams, and the Philippines-oh plenty of diversions. But in the old days a man in the line was billed for an awfully stupid time l didn't care to take to drink; and I couldn't read as you do if I'd had books, which I hadn't, so I took to playing cards. played skat and poker and whist, and of late years I've played bridge. Millieent plays?"
 "Millicent is a celebrated player. She was a great dupllcate-whist play. CT, you know To see Millicent in he. glory, one should play duplicate with her I'm only a chump player; my sole object is to win tricks"
 What else should it be?"
 Aunt Rebecca smiled upon him. "To give information to your partner. The main object of the celebrated Ameri- can-leads system is signaling informa- ion to your partner Incidentally, one tells the adversaries, as we'll as one's rartner, which, however, doesn't count really as much as you might think; for most people don't notice what their partners play very much. and don't notice what their adver- ways so busy indicating things to her partner and watching for his signals and his indications that you can run cross ruff in on her without her sus- pecting She asked me once if she didn't play an intelligent game, and told her she did; a babe in arms could understand it. She didn't seem quite pleased"
 How about Archie? Can he play good gamer
 Very fair for a boy of IA; he was fond of whist until his troubles came" said Mrs Winter, with faint clouding of her keen gaze. Since then he hasn't taken much interest in anything. Janet has frightened him up more than anyone; and when he heard you were coming that did rouse him. You are one of his heroes. He's that sort of boy" she added, with tinge of impatience in her soft south ern voice As if to divert her thoughts. she began deftly moving the cards before her. Her hands showed the blue veins more prominently than they show in young hands. This was their only surrender to time; they were shapely and white, and the slim fin gers were as straight as when the beaux of Fairfax county would have ridden all day for chance to kiss them.
 The colonel watched the great ruby wink and glow. The ruby was part of his memories of his aunt; she had always worn it. He remembered it, when she used to come and visit him at the hotel at West Point, dazzling impartially officers, professors, cadets and hotel walters. Was that almost 40 years ago? We'll, 34 anyhow! She had been very good. very generous to all the young Winters. then Indeed, although she never quite forgave him for not marrying the wife of her se- lecting, she had always been kind and generous to Rupert; yet, somehow, while he had admired and found a humorous joy in his Aunt Rebecca, he wondered if he had ever loved her. She was both beautiful and brilliant when she was young, southern belle. a northern society leader; her life was full of conquests; her footsteps, which had wandered over the world, had left a phosphorescent wake of ad- miration. She had always been per sonage. She was power in Washing ton after the war; they had found her uniquely delightful in royal courts long before Americans were the fashion: she had been of importance in New York, and they had loved her epigrams in Boston; now, in her old age, she held a verftable little court of her own in the provincial western city which had been her husbands home. He went 10 COuBTSSb run Y dil pbitf he had made a fortune there, and when he died many years ago, in Egypt, back to his western home, with doeged determination and lavish ex penditures of both money and wit, his widow had brought him to rest The most intense and solemn experience of a woman she had missed, for no children had come to them, but her husband had been her lover so long as he lived. and she had loved him. She had known great men; she had lived through wonderful events; and often her hand had been on those secret levers which move vast forces She had been in tragedies, if m in- violable coolness of head, perhaps of heart. had shielded her from being of them. The husband of her youth, the nearest of her blood the friends of bar middle life-aIl had gone into the dark: yet here she sat- with her smooth skin and her still lustrous eyes and her fragrant hands, keenly smiling over her solitaire The col onol wondered if he could ever recon ciIe himself with such philosophy to