SUNDAY BRIDGE 233 



reminiscent with his second glass of port, has 

 narrated his personal experience of the various 

 senile and incompetent clergy whom he has ap- 

 pointed to livings from which it has subsequently 

 proved impossible to remove them. The short- 

 comings of the local choir, and the particularly 

 blatant bleating of the village blacksmith have 

 been duly criticized. The organist's original 

 attempt to enliven the Litany by the intro- 

 duction of a spirited Gregorian cake-walk ac- 

 companiment, played exclusively on the black 

 notes, has evoked unfavourable comment. The 

 meal, indeed, has passed merrily enough, and 

 with the advent of coffee and cigarettes the 

 sterner sex has settled down to a comparison of 

 golf handicaps and nervous ailments with a zest 

 that age cannot wither nor custom stale. 



After dinner, however, when the guests are 

 once more assembled in the drawing-room, there 

 frequently follows a period of intolerable tedium ; 

 the habitual card-players of the party think 

 bitterly of the games of chance they are not 

 permitted to indulge in, while the confirmed 

 gamblers are apt to respond somewhat curtly 

 to their hostess's tactful suggestion that they 

 shall sing hymns or play " Musical Chairs." 



On such occasions a warm welcome awaits 

 the inventor of any game that shall combine 

 the forbidden charms of Bridge with the attrac- 



