approximate length of the
previous dispute had now been taken up, whatever retort Carolyn Drake
had made. Then he checked himself, again looking at his watch: "And just
what did you answer to your husband's little joke, Mrs. Drake?"

"I--I--" The woman looked helplessly around the table, her slate-colored
eyes reddened with tears, then she plunged recklessly, after a fearful
glance at Dundee's implacable face. "I said that if it was Nita he was
talking to, he wouldn't speak in that tone; that she could make all the
foolish mistakes of over-bidding or revoking or doubling that she wanted
to, and he wouldn't say a word except to praise her--"

"Then I may as well confess," Drake said acidly, "that I answered
substantially as follows: 'Nita is an _intelligent_ bridge player as
well as a charming woman, my dear!...' Now make the most of that little
family tiff, sir--and be damned to you!"

"Did that end the scene, Mrs. Drake?" Dundee asked gently.

"I--I said something about all the men thinking Nita was perfect," Mrs.
Drake confessed, "and I cried a little, but we went on with the hand.
And Johnny--Mr. Drake went away, walking up and down the room, waiting
for Nita to come back, I suppose!"

"Then go on with the game," Dundee ordered.

Silently now, as silently as the real game must have been played,
because of the embarrassing scene between husband and wife, the sinister
game was carried to its conclusion. Karen led the Jack of Hearts from
the dummy, Penny played her seven, Karen contributed her own deuce, and
Mrs. Drake followed suit with the five.

Again Karen led from the dummy, with the four of Hearts, followed by
Penny's nine, taking it with her own Ace, Mrs. Drake throwing off the
five of Clubs. Karen then led the six of Hearts, Carolyn Drake discarded
the six of Clubs, dummy took the trick with the eight of Hearts, and
Penny sloughed the three of Clubs.

With a faint imitation of the triumph with which she had played the hand
the first time, Karen threw down her remaining three trumps.

"I've made it--a little slam!" she tried to sound very triumphant.
"Doubled and redoubled!... How much did I--did Nita and I make, Penny?"

"Plenty!" But before putting pencil to score pad, Penny cupped her chin
in her hands and stared at Carolyn Drake. "I'd like to know, Carolyn, if
it isn't one of your most cherished secrets, _what_ possessed you to
double in the first place?"

Carolyn Drake flushed scarlet as she pro