It was, therefore, agreed to play a triangular game, the pair having the most books to be winners, and have the right to shuffle and deal for the following trial of skill.  The contending pairs were the pensioner and Serlizer, Ben and Tryphosa, Maguffin and Tryphena, partners were allowed to help each other.  While the British Islands, Turkey, Russia, and India were being played, Rigby and Miss Newcome were triumphant, but when it came to any other part of the world, especially to America, with the exception of Canada, where Serlizer scored her one victory, that pair was helpless.  Maguffin acquired a book by his own unaided wisdom, that of the Southern United States; otherwise Tryphena inspired him.  Ben had an unavailing contest with Miss Newcome over Canada, and saw her make up the book and slam it on the table with mingled feelings of pride in her, and mortification for his own want of success.  But, as he said, Tryphosa was “a daisy and parlyzed the hull gang.”  Laurel after laurel she took from the brow of the travelled pensioner; she swooped down upon Tryphena and Maguffin, and robbed them of books wholesale, till Mr. Toner remarked that she had “quayte a libery”; in her hands the strapping Serlizer was helpless as a child.  Magnanimously, she allowed Ben to shuffle and Serlizer to cut, then Ben again to deal.

The second game was more exciting.  Mr. Maguffin, naturally quick and possessing a memory cultivated by closely following the prelections of his coloured Baptist religious instructors, rapidly seized the hitherto unknown combinations, and astonished Tryphena with his bold independence of action.  The constable’s mind worked more conservatively, as became his rank and profession, and Serlizer was worse than useless to him, but, by chance, they had magnificent hands.  He piled up India in quick marching time, as he hummed “The British Grenadiers,” and accompanied it with a drum beat of his right foot on the floor.  Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, Indus, Ganges, and Godavery, Himalayas, Ghauts, and Vindhyas, lay captured at his right hand.  Ben won Ireland from him, but he annexed England, Scotland, and Turkey.  Once more Serlizer took Canada, and, owing to Mr. Toner’s imperfect shuffling, laid complete books of Egypt, Australia, and Brazil upon the table.  The stars fought against Tryphena and Tryphosa, and, in spite of Mr. Maguffin’s gallant struggle against fate, the pensioner took the honours.  Then Miss Newcome favoured him with a friendly kick under the table, accompanied by the elegant expression:  “Bully for you, old man!” Next, the victorious damsel shuffled, allowed Tryphena to cut, and dealt out the cards for the third game.  This time the deal was fair, and Mr. Rigby, glancing over his partner’s capacious hand, beheld there no prospect of continued good fortune.  Tryphena was on her mettle as a geographer, and Maguffin had stowed away in his all-embracing memory the names of half the globe’s prominent features in city, river, and mountain.  He wrested