Free Private Life by Jane Smiley Page B

not have a habit that
    others did (Beatrice, for example) of topping some other lady's anecdote with something
    more impressive of her own, though they all knew she could have. She saved her
    competitive streak for the poker table.

    Mrs. Early and Mrs. Hitchens sat at different tables. Every hand was five cards,
    and at first the ladies continued to chat while the hands were dealt and they were
    arranging their cards. Mrs. Early and Mrs. Hitchens chatted along with the rest of them,
    complimenting the cakes, or discussing the first strawberries, or comparing knitting
    patterns, but Mrs. Early and Mrs. Hitchens never picked up their cards as soon as they
    were dealt. They glanced about while the rest of the ladies were scanning what they had,
    then they picked up their cards, looked at them, and laid them down again, still genial.
    The betting rounds proceeded with lots of laughter and talk, as if each betting decision
    was a daring choice, and, indeed, it did seem to the other ladies to be so. Mrs. Early
    would urge them to be a little more bold--"Raise her two, Mrs. Landon. I'm sure you can
    stand it!" or "Surely, Miss Mayfield, you needn't fold just yet." Her voice was so friendly
    that Margaret felt as though Mrs. Early was helping her along, that she had Margaret's
    interests foremost in her mind. But Margaret never followed her advice, though some of
    the other ladies did. These ladies did not always come to grief, but often enough they did.
    Margaret understood Mrs. Early's purpose--to plump the pot a little before laying claim to
    it. At the other table, Mrs. Hitchens was doing the same thing, though in a different way-"I'm not sure I would lose hope, dear," or "It's so nice when the wagering is confident and
    straightforward." The stakes were low, but toward the end of the afternoon, after the
    losing players had dropped out, the value of the chips would metamorphose--nickel chips
    would be worth two bits, dime chips worth half a dollar, and two-bit chips worth a dollar.
    When the winning ladies consolidated at a single table, Mrs. Hitchens dropped out with a
    smile and an "Oh, I am a bit tired after all."

    Mrs. Early's eyes were cheerful. Margaret never saw her scowl or lose her smile,
    nor did she fidget or sigh or touch her hair or move her shoulders, as many of the ladies
    did without seeming to know what they were doing. They all thought that their friends
    didn't actually mean to take their money, but Mrs. Early and Mrs. Hitchens did mean to
    take their money. They preferred it when the ladies all had to show their hands, and in
    order to promote this, Mrs. Early introduced high-low, in which both the high hand and
    the low hand split the pot. Once they started playing in this way, it seemed more fair and
    more fun, but Margaret saw that Mrs. Early also won more money. And she won more
    often at stud-horse poker than at draw poker. After a while, Margaret got wise to the fact
    that Mrs. Early was counting the cards, and that she never forgot that if there were three
    kings faceup on the table, the likelihood of her completing her flush was minimal. When
    they played draw poker, she paid close attention to how many cards each of them asked
    for, as if this told her something, as, indeed, it did. She and Mrs. Hitchens also liked to
    play vingt-et-un, and Margaret soon came to understand that Mrs. Early was keeping
    track of the cards that were laid.

    One day that summer, when Margaret was sitting beside her at the table, Mrs.
    Early had just cut the cards. When she took the deck in her hand, she said, "There's a card
    missing." The missing card was under Mrs. Johnson's chair. This incident passed without
    remark, but to Margaret, the idea that a woman could be so familiar with the size and
    weight of a deck of cards that she would sense that a single card was missing was
    remarkable.

    Lavinia had gone to Kirkwood to visit Elizabeth. The weather had been hot, but
    the heat had broken--it was late July. Margaret