What Every Woman Knows

Excerpt

(James Wylie is about to make a move on the dambrod, and in the little Scotch room there is an awful silence befitting the occasion.  James with his hand poised—­for if he touches a piece he has to play it, Alick will see to that—­raises his red head suddenly to read Alick’s face.  His father, who is Alick, is pretending to be in a panic lest James should make this move.  James grins heartlessly, and his fingers are about to close on the ‘man’ when some instinct of self-preservation makes him peep once more.  This time Alick is caught:  the unholy ecstasy on his face tells as plain as porridge that he has been luring James to destruction.  James glares; and, too late, his opponent is a simple old father again.  James mops his head, sprawls in the manner most conducive to thought in the Wylie family, and, protruding his underlip, settles down to a reconsideration of the board.  Alick blows out his cheeks, and a drop of water settles on the point of his nose.