The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-09-08
CHAPTER 67a

d bit of washing and to sit down to an 1 excellent diHner. Our grim honesty With each other was not forgotten, | but it had to merge into the nieeites | of home life and table conversation. After dinner Pat suggested few | rubbers of bridge. Rose and I both l agreed enthusiastically. supposed l we were both actuated by the desire i to avoid conversation and its pitfalls. We cut for partners. and Rosa and | I were paired against Jeanie and Pat.
 The deal went to Rosa,~ who seized upon the score card and the red deck with her most gamine sweop. 1 For what do we play?'' she cried | stakes?" asked Virginia lazily. Rosa's shoulders and eyebrows l went up in unison, as she began shuf- 1 fling the cards absent-aindedly. l Who's afraid of losing?" she chal- l lenged. "Or is. maybe, someone -
 how you say-so goody-good that she | does not wish to make it like gam i bling? Me. am like all my country | men-T am a good glambler, me And | the stakes they cannot come too high | for Rosa'
 ''You don't want to be after play Ing much higher than five cents a | point, do you now?" ehuclsied Pat,
 his brogue at its enchanting thiekesr. 1 HaH cent, she is enough for
 Rosa" cried that young woman. Gambling always brings to my mind
 the first time I saw Jim erouched | over table, with a fast-growing pile | of chips at his elbow and his face
 fairly contorted in its intentness on
 the game which always seemed to
 turn him into someone scarcely
 knew. I said nothing. I could not
 have brought myself to agree to PDe-- be- e,,,rr {i1,,
 meant to risk an ugly scene before l Jeanie.
 I had sudden suspicion that Rosa | didn't consider me a good sport and
 was inviting me to prove it. So I sat
 in silence. hating the thought of l playing for high stakes. Virginia sent 1 me sudden warming smile
 Pat would never take your money l if he won" she cried. He's so Irish | about women, especially his cwss l guests. So let's do it this way: We'll 1 play for a tenth of a cent, and the l winner agrees to take the crowd to 1 lunch and have the party cost just
 what his gains are. We may end at
 a drug store soda feuntain-but we'll
 know we are all good spor+s."
 1 'Jeanie, my darlin, you're arter 1 bein' some inventive geniusI" laugh | ed Pat.
 1 Rosa smiled with the air of perfect l breeding she can slip on like 8 we'll fitting glove. For Virginia she has | evidently the respect the grande dame
 side of her nature cannot withhold
 from one who is completely an aristo-
 crat.
 l "If you say it shall be so Mrs. l Dalton, am pleased,'' she said 1 We settled down to the game. Both | Jeanie and Pat play well. Jeanie has 1 the careless correctness of one in 1 whom the so-called "card sense" is I well developed. Pat has a sort of 1 uncertain brilliancy which he eurbs i with his courteous recognition that l this is a game of partners, and that 1 he owes it to his partner to follow the l conventions. /% i groped my way with the begin | ner's dread of breaking rule Of 1 failing to observe a convention. I 1 know I'm a plodding player. but I 1 try not to be a stupid or reckless l one.
 l Rosa's game turned out to be the l most amusingly consistent thing I've ever seen. She plays brilliantly, but 1 with the most terrific recklessness. 1 Yet that reclSlessness seems to be 1 based a gift for sizing up situa- l tions and estimating bids. She hardly l ever makes an opening bid. But her 1 secondary declarations were numer- 1 ouS ana feHlarkaDle.
 l Once when I had gone to two l hearts over a no-trump, and then to l three, she bid five clubs over the l three no-trump, which had displayed l its fearlessnes where my hearts were 1 concerned By trumi ing the first 1 diamond and forcing the opponents I after three heart leads to take home 1 their ace and establish my hearts, she l actually made a little slam She'd 1 figured me either the ace of spa les l or the ace of diamonds for my outside trick. We scored five honors in her l hand and fifty for the slam, beside 1 thirty-six below the line. "Bri11iantl' Pat cried. Since you had nothing but clubs" l I asked, wouldn't it have been wise
 to let them have their three no-trump
 and set them on clubs and hearts?"
 Suppose you had no clubs to lead | me? and here sat with never a dia-
 mond nor yet Aeart to lead you. No. it would have been absurd to let 1 the no-trurnp bid stand" said Rosa 1 emphaticAuy.
 1 And you couldn't go up for me in 1 the major suit-hearts? I askeN
 again, adding the explanation that the game was new to me and I liked l to get all possible points. "So you see I'm not critieising your victory. Pm just analysing it."
 1 oL Coulo oS, oOoi, oeS1o 1T 5ttA11's "S 1 understand that. Mrs. Cerdeva play ed brilliantly and figured things ont 1 like a general. You want to get all 1 possible information from her mas terly handling of the situation. No novice would have done it that way. Anne and I are anxious to learn all we can from an expert" | Surely you do not put yourself in I the class with Mrs. Harrison? ?" aues- i toned Rosa, smoothly. "She plays | bridge like she does everything else, l by-how you say-fule of three. | tell you, White Lilac, even if I am 1 to make it clear to you how do with l that last hand. it is not for you to play l the game like I do.
 To Be Continued. IJJSE TIMES IVY A NIT