Barry Pain

“ Nervousness is not the same thing as fear, or anything like it. Now, Colonel Stocker makes me nervous. He is admitted to be a good player, but no player on earth is quite so good as Colonel Stocker thinks he is. He is a big man, three times my size, and his voice is loud and penetrating. He always lectures his partner, and to me he is invariably and persistently rude. I have often thought, after a game of bridge, that I simply should not have permitted Colonel Stocker to speak as he did. As I loathe the man and detest having him as a partner, it naturally follows that I cut with him. ”

“ I am as certain as any man can be of anything that it was the ace of spades. But it turned into the ace of diamonds when it fell on the table. In absolute agony I examined my hand again. I found that the spades had now all vanished, and that I held five more small diamonds. It was not really my fault. Nobody can play a hand when the cards are doing conjuring tricks on their own and changing suits under your very eyes.
My opponents scored above the line for that game nine hundred and thirty-six. Colonel Stocker did not say a word. ”

“ These three men do not think that my bridge is quite their class. There may be two opinions as to that, but they think so. I hoped, of course, that I should cut with Dawes. Without being absolutely courteous, he was still, as a rule, more sympathetic than the other two. Simpson has a nasty tongue. But the worst of the three—the man whom I most hate to have as partner—was unquestionably Stocker.
Do not for one moment think that I am afraid of him. I am afraid of nothing. ”