It was interminable.

Henrietta Vance chose a card and put it back into the deck.

Then the deck was shuffled and divided into three piles.

After this Geary made a mental calculation, selected one of these piles, shuffled it, and gave it back to her, asking her if she saw her card in it; then more shuffling and dividing until their interest and patience were quite exhausted.

When Geary finally produced a jack of hearts and demanded triumphantly if that was her card, Henrietta began to laugh and declared she had forgotten _what_ card she chose.