Nor should tact be confined to such comparatively rare incidents as this.  For instance, it is a mistake to confuse Auction Bridge with Rugby football.  I have known players who declared “Two No-trumps” in very much the same manner as that in which a Rugby football-player throws the opposing three-quarter over the side-line.  Excessive aggression is a mistake.  A young Civil Servant of my acquaintance even went so far as to abstain from claiming an obvious revoke when the delinquent was the chief of his department.  Unfortunately, however, this young man, so wise in other ways, had the annoying habit of turning his chair to bring him luck.  On one evening, when the run of the cards was against him, he turned his chair between every hand and so annoyed his chief that no promotion has ever come his way, and he now spends his days bitterly regretting that he did not claim that revoke.

Passing to another point, I am asked by a correspondent if it is permissible occasionally to play from left to right, instead of from right to left, just to relieve the monotony.  He asks, not unreasonably, why, if this is not so, writers on Bridge go to the trouble of putting those little curved arrows to show which way round the cards are to be played.

For myself, I see no reason why the right-to-left convention should not occasionally be reversed, always provided that the whole table agrees beforehand to play in the same direction.

There are many other points to which I should like to refer, and many players to whom I should like to give a word of warning.  There is the player who suddenly breaks off to join in the conversation of other people who happen to be in the room.  There is the player who whistles to himself while he is playing:  this is a grave fault, nor does the class of music whistled affect the question; the Preislied performed through the teeth is quite as exasperating as K-K-Katie.  Then there is the player who breathes so hard with the exertion of the game that he blows the cards about the table.  Finally there is the player who slaps the face of his or her partner.  This is a mistake, however great the provocation.  I have not space now to deal exhaustively with these breaches of Auction etiquette.  Besides, I have to keep something in hand for future articles.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Foreman (to new hand). “WHAT ARE YOU DOIN’ THERE?”

New Hand. “OILIN’ THE WHEELBARROW.”

Foreman. “WELL, JUST LET IT ALONE.  WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MACHINERY?”]

* * * * *

THE MADDING CROWD.

The scene is an Irish Point-to-Point meeting.

The course lies along a shallow valley, bounded on the north by a wall of cloudy blue mountains.

At each jump stands a group of spectators; the difficulty or danger of an obstacle may be measured by the number of spectators who stand about it, recounting tales of past accidents and hoping cheerfully for the future.  Motor cars, side-cars, waggonettes, pony-traps and ass-carts are drawn up anyhow round a clump of whitewashed farm buildings in the background.