Unless she were in a position to plead, definitely, that she was jealous she should be in no position to plead, decently, that she was dissatisfied.

This latter condition would be a necessary implication of the former; without the former behind it it would HAVE to fall to the ground.

So had the case, wonderfully, been arranged for her; there was a card she could play, but there was only one, and to play it would be to end the game.

She felt herself--as at the small square green table, between the tall old silver candlesticks and the neatly arranged counters--her father's playmate and partner; and what it constantly came back to, in her mind, was that for her to ask a question, to raise a doubt, to reflect in any degree on the play of the others, would be to break the charm.

The charm she had to call it, since it kept her companion so constantly engaged, so perpetually seated and so contentedly occupied.