noon
generally leads to dissipation.

It is sometimes advanced by this unhappy class, by way of apology, that
they play at night; which may very possibly be the case, but they don't
play well. There is no such thing, except in the sense in which
after-dinner speaking is called 'good,' as good whist after dinner. It
may seem otherwise, even to the spectators; but having themselves dined
like the rest, they are not in a position to give an opinion. The
keenness of observation is blunted by food and wine; the delicate
perceptions are gone; and what is left of the intelligence is generally
devoted to finding faults in your partner's play. The consciousness of
mistakes on your own part, which he is in no condition to discern,
instead of suggesting charity, induces irritation, and you are
persuaded, till you get the next man, that you are mated with the worst
player in all Christendom. Moreover, that 'one more rubber' with which
you propose to finish is generally elastic (_Indian_ rubber), and you
sit up into the small hours and find them disagree with you. If I ever
write that new series of the 'Chesterfield Letters' which I have long
had in my mind, and for which I feel myself eminently qualified, my
most earnest advice to young gentlemen of fashion will be found in the
golden rule, 'Never sit down to whist after dinner;' it is a mistake,
and almost an immorality. If they must play cards, let them play
Napoleon.

With regard to finding fault with one's partner, I have no apology to
offer for it under any circumstances; but it must be remembered that
this does not always arise from ill-temper, or the sense of loss that
might have been gain. There are many lovers of whist for its own sake
to whom bad play, even in an adversary, excites a certain distress of
mind; when a good hand is thrown away by it, they experience the same
sort of emotion that a gourmand feels who sees a haunch of venison
spoilt in the carving. In such a case a gentle expression of
disapproval is surely pardonable. And I have observed that, with one or
two exceptions (_non Angli sed angeli_, men of angelic temper rather
than ordinary Englishmen), the good players who never find fault are
not socially the pleasantest. They are men who 'play to win,' and who
think it very injudicious to educate a bad partner who will presently
join the ranks of the Opposition.

What is rather curious--and I speak with some experience, for I have
played with all classes,