Wugsby kissed her eldest daughter most affectionately, and frowning

in a warning manner upon the other, sorted her cards.

Poor Mr Pickwick! he had never played with three thorough- paced

female card-players before. They were so desperately sharp, that they

quite frightened him. If he played a wrong card, Miss Bolo looked a

small armoury of daggers; if he stopped to consider which was the

right one, Lady Snuphanuph would throw herself back in her chair,

and smile with a mingled glance of impatience and pity to Mrs.

Colonel Wugsby, at which Mrs. Colonel Wugsby would shrug up her

shoulders, and cough, as much as to say she wondered whether he

ever would begin. Then, at the end of every hand, Miss Bolo would

inquire with a dismal countenance and reproachful sigh, why Mr

Pickwick had not returned that diamond, or led the club, or roughed

the spade, or finessed the heart, or led through the honour, or

brought out the ace, or played up to the king, or some such thing; and

in reply to all these grave charges, Mr Pickwick would be wholly

unable to plead any justification whatever, having by this time

forgotten all about the game. People came and looked on, too, which

made Mr Pickwick nervous. Besides all this, there was a great deal of

distracting conversation near the table, between Angelo Bantam and

the two Misses Matinter, who, being single and singular, paid great

court to the Master of the Ceremonies, in the hope of getting a stray

partner now and then. All these things, combined with the noises and

interruptions of constant comings in and goings out, made Mr

Pickwick play rather badly; the cards were against him, also; and

when they left off at ten minutes past eleven, Miss Bolo rose from the

table considerably agitated, and went straight home, in a flood of tears

and a sedan-chair.

Being joined by his friends, who one and all protested that they had

scarcely ever spent a more pleasant evening, Mr Pickwick

accompanied them to the White Hart, and having soothed his feelings

with something hot, went to bed, and to sleep, almost simultaneously.

The Pickwick Papers