Dummy again. She seemed to be dummy often, this afternoon. They were playing for quarter cents, but even that low stake, Nancy thought irritably, ran up into a considerable sum, when one's partner bid as madly as young Mrs. Billings bid. She was doubled, and redoubled, and she lost and lost; Nancy saw Elsie's white hand, with its gold pencil, daintily scoring four hundred--two hundred--three hundred.
"I thought I might as well try it," said Mrs. Billings blithely, "but you didn't give me much help, partner!"
"I didn't bid, you know," Nancy reminded her.
"Oh, I know you didn't--it was entirely my own fault! Well, now, let's try again. ..."
Suddenly it seemed to Nancy all wrong--her sitting here in the tempered summer light, playing cards throughout the afternoon. Inherited from some con
