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  ...for his heels_." There is something extremely genteel in this sort of self-denial. Sarah Battle was a gentlewoman born.
Piquet she held the best game at the cards for two persons, though she would ridicule the pedantry of the terms--such as pique--repique--the capot--they savoured (she thought) of affectation. But games for two, or even three, she never greatly cared for. She loved the quadrate, or square. She would argue thus:--Cards are warfare: the ends are gain, with glory. But Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.   when single adversaries encounter, the ends proposed are too palpable. By themselves, it is too close a fight; with spectators, it is not much bettered. No looker on can be interested, except for a bet, and then it is a mere affair of money; he cares not for your luck _sympathetically_, or for your play.--Three are still worse; a mere naked war of every man against every man, as in cribbage, without league or alliance; or a rotation of petty and contradictory interests, a succession of...   Lamb, Charles

Excerpt from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia · This quote is tagged Cards · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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