If you have no scruples of conscience, it is not courteous to refuse, when a game cannot be made up without you.

You may refuse to play if you do not understand the game thoroughly.  If, however, you are urged to try, and your partner and opponents offer to instruct you, you may accede to their requests, for in so doing, you will acquire a better knowledge of the game.

Married and elderly people take precedence over young and unmarried people, in a game of cards.

It is the privilege of the host and hostess to suggest cards as a means of amusement for the guests.  The latter should never call for them.

“Whist” is a game of cards so-called, because it requires silence and close attention.  Therefore in playing this game, you must give your whole attention to the cards, and secure at least comparative silence.  Do not suggest or keep up any conversation during a game, which will distract your own mind or the mind of others from the game.

Never hurry any one who is playing.  In endeavoring to play their best, they should take their own time, without interruption.

Betting at cards is vulgar, partakes of the nature of gambling, and should at all times be avoided.

Never finger the cards while they are being dealt, nor take up any of them until all are dealt out, when you may take your own cards and proceed to play.

In large assemblies it is best to furnish the cards and tables, and allow guests to play or not, at their option, the host and hostess giving their assistance in seeking for people disposed to play, and in making up a game.  In giving card parties, new cards should be provided on every occasion.

 [Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Language of Flowers.

How beautiful and yet how cheap are flowers!  Not exotics, but what are called common flowers.  A rose, for instance, is among the most beautiful of the smiles of nature.  The “laughing flowers,” exclaims the poet.  But there is more than gayety in blooming flowers, though it takes a wise man to see the beauty, the love, and the adaptation of which they are full.

What should we think of one who had invented flowers, supposing that, before him, flowers were unknown?  Would he not be regarded as the opener-up of a paradise of new delight?  Should we not hail the inventor as a genius, as a god?  And yet these lovely offsprings of the earth have been speaking to man from the first dawn of his existence until now, telling him of the goodness and wisdom of the Creative Power, which bid the earth bring forth, not only that which was useful as food, but also flowers, the bright consummate flowers to clothe it in beauty and joy!

[Illustration:  FLOWERS. 
“The meanest flower that blows, can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”]

Bring one of the commonest field-flowers into a room, place it on a table, or chimney-piece, and you seem to have brought a ray of sunshine into the place.  There is a cheerfulness about flowers.  What a delight are they to the drooping invalid!  They are a sweet enjoyment, coming as messengers from the country, and seeming to say, “Come and see the place where we grow, and let your heart be glad in our presence.”