g them their 'characters,' there would be a great
improvement in them. Against the masters themselves (unlike the
mistresses) I have never heard much complaint. Most of them object to
be 'bothered' and 'troubled,' and are willing enough to put everything
into their man's hands, including the key of the Cellar, if only they
could trust him; but at present, alas! this is a very large 'If.'

_WHIST-PLAYERS._

If cards are the Devil's books, Whist is the _edition de luxe_ of them.
Whist-playing is one of the few vices of the upper classes that has not
in time descended to the lower, with whom the ingenious and attractive
game of 'All Fours' has always held its own against it. I have known
but two men not belonging to the upper ten thousand who played well at
whist. One was a well-known jockey in the South of England, who was
also, by the way, an admirable billiard-player. He called himself an
amateur, but those who played with him used to complain that his
proceedings were even ultra-professional. On the Turf men are almost as
equal as they are under it, and this ornament of the pigskin would on
certain occasions (race meetings) take his place at the card-table with
some who were very literally his betters, while others who had more
self-respect contented themselves with backing him. The other example I
have in my mind was an ancient Cumberland yeoman, who, having lost the
use of his limbs in middle life from having been tossed by a bull,
pursued the science under considerable difficulties. A sort of
card-rack (such as Psycho uses at the Egyptian Hall) was placed in
front of him, and behind him stood his little granddaughter who played
the cards for him by verbal direction. Both these men played a very
good game of the old-fashioned kind, for though the jockey used
subtleties, they were not of the Clay or Cavendish sort. The asking for
trumps was a device unknown to him, though there were folks who
whispered he would take them under certain circumstances without
asking, and of the leading of the penultimate with five in the suit it
could be said of him, for once, that he was as innocent as a babe.

Of course, many persons join the 'upper ten' who come from the lower
twenty (or even thirty), and it need not be said that they are by no
means inferior in sagacity to their new acquaintances; yet they rarely
make first-rate players. Whist, like the classics, must be learnt young
for any excellence to be attained in it.