"What are you doing, Anita?" cried Miss Carrington, petulantly, as they settled themselves at the table. "You know I always play with the blue cards, and you are dealing them!" "Sure enough! Pardon me, Lady Lucy, I will take the red ones." "Then, pray, wait till I make them up. There. No, let the Count cut them! Have you no notion of bridge rules? You are quite the most inattentive player! Will you kindly concentrate on the game?" "Yes, indeed," and Anita Frayne smiled as she deftly dealt the red cards. "I hope you have a good hand." "You hope I have a good hand! A strange idea for an adversary!" "But I know you like to win," and Miss Frayne hastily gathered up her own cards. "I do not like to have you want me to win! That's babyish. I like to win by superior skill, not merely by lucky cards!" This was an awful whopper, and all at the table knew it, but it was ignored and the game began. Miss Carrington--Lady Lucy, as she liked to be called--did not hold good hands. On the contrary, she had a run of bad luck that made her more and more irate with each hand dealt. Miss Frayne, who was her _protégée_ and social secretary, watched with growing apprehension the red spots that appeared in Miss Carrington's cheeks, infallible danger signals of an impending outbreak. It came. "Another handful of blanks!" Miss Carrington exclaimed, angrily, and flung the offending thirteen cards across the wide room. "There now, Cousin Lucy," said Gray Haviland, determined to keep the peace if possible, "that was a clever idea! It will certainly change your luck! I'll collect the pasteboards, and we'll start fresh." Easily, the big, good-looking young chap sauntered across the room and gathered up the cards, chatting meanwhile. "You don't lose your deal, you know; so try again, Cousin Lucy, and good luck to you!" In angry silence Miss Carrington dealt again, and examined her hand. "Nothing above a nine spot!" she declared, throwing them, backs up, on the table. "Too bad!" murmured Miss Frayne, carelessly picking up the hand. "Why, you didn't look closely! Here's an ace and two queens and----" "They're nothing! How dare you dispute my word? I say the hand is worthless!" She fairly snatched the cards from the girl and turned them face down again. "But mad'moiselle," began the Count, "if you have an ace and two queens, I could have played a no-trump hand grand,--ah, splendid!" "Yes, _you_ could have played it! You want to play all the open hands! You want me to sit here a dummy, a figure-head, every time!" "Now, now, Lady Lucy----" and Anita Frayne laughed pleasantly. "Be quiet! You're worse yet! You want to deal me good hands to humor me! I believe you would cheat to do it! I don't want good cards that way!" "Ah," begged the Count, seeing Anita flush, "do not tell the young lady she cheats! Do not do that!"