The million pound banknote

In the gossip column I ranked above all dukes not royal, and said so, and claimed precedence of this one. It couldn't be settled, of course, struggle as we might and did, so we all processioned back to the drawing-room again and had a perpendicular lunch - a plate of sardines and a strawberry, and you get into a group and stand and eat it.

Here the religion of precedence is not so strenuous; the two persons of highest rank chuck up a shilling, the one that wins has first go at his strawberry, and the loser gets the shilling. The next two chuck up, then the next two, and so on. After refreshment, tables were brought, and we all played cribbage, sixpence a game. The English never play any game for amusement. If they can't make something or lose something - they don't care which - they won't play.

We had a lovely time; certainly two of us had, Miss Langham and I. I was so bewitched with her that I couldn't count my hands if they went above a double sequence; and when I struck home I never discovered it, and started up the outside row again, and would have lost the game every time, only the girl did the same, she being in just my condition, you see; and consequently neither of us ever got out, or cared to wonder why we didn't; we just knew we were happy, and didn't wish to know anything else, and didn't want to be interrupted.

Vocabulary:

Perpendicular: Standing upright
Strenuous: Hard, tough or strict
Chuck: Slang word for 'toss' or 'throw'
Cribbage: A card game scored on a board
Bewitched: As if affected by magic
Got out: Here it means finished the game