The Bunch of Violets, page 19 by Ernest Bramah
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"I'm sure Max will feel it if he thinks that he is depriving us," put in Hulse, loyally, so with some more polite protestation it was arranged and the game began, Carrados remaining where he was. In the circumstances a very high standard of bridge could not be looked for; the calling was a. little wild; the play more than a little loose; the laughter rather shrill or rather flat; the conversation between the hands forced and spasmodic. All were playing for time in their several interpretations of it; the blind man alone was thinking beyond the immediate moment.
Presently there was a more genuine burst of laughter than any hitherto. Kato had revoked, and, confronted with it, had made a na•ve excuse. Carrados rose with the intention of going nearer when a distressing thing occurred. Half-way across the room he seemed to slip, plunged forward helplessly, and came to the floor, involved in a light table as he fell. All the players were on their feet in an instant. Darragh assisted his guest to rise- Violet took an arm; Kato looked about the floor curiously, and Hulse--Hulse stared hard at Max and wondered what the thunder this portended.
"Clumsy, clumsy," murmured Carrados beneath his breath. "Forgive me, Miss Darragh."
"Oh, Mr. Carrados!" she exclaimed in genuine distress. "Aren't you really hurt?"
"Not a bit of it," he declared lightly. "Or at all events," he amended, bearing rather more heavily upon her support as he took a step, "nothing to speak of."
"Here is pencil," said Kuromi, picking one up from the polished floor. "You must have slipped on this."
"Stepping on a pencil is like that," contributed Hulse wisely. "It acts as a kind of roller-skate."
"Please don't interrupt the game any more," pleaded the victim. "At the most, at the very worst, it is only-oh!-a negligible strain."
"I don't know that any strain, especially of the ankle, is negligible, Mr. Carrados," said Darragh with cunning foresight. "I think it perhaps ought to be seen to."<