with a small one to guard it against being taken by the best; as, for example, king and a small one originally, or knave and a small one when the ace and queen have been played.

This combination is an important one, having an advantage analogous to that of the tenace; namely, that if the suit is led by your left-hand adversary, you are certain (bar trumping) to make your second-best card.

Honors are the ace, king, queen, and knave of trumps; the term, however, is often applied to the same cards in plain suits. The ten and nine are sometimes called semi-honors.

Leading through, or up to. - The person who leads is said to lead through his left hand adversary, and up to his right hand one, such being the direction in which the play runs.

Long cards are cards remaining in one hand when all the rest of that suit have been played.

Long suit. One of which you hold more than three cards. See Strength.

Loose card means a card in hand of no value, and • consequently the fittest to throw away.

Make. To make a card means simply to win a trick with it.

Master card or best card, means the highest card in at the time. Thus, if the ace and king were out, the master card would be the queen. This is sometimes also called the 'king card,' a name likely to cause confusion.

Opening.-Term borrowed from chess, to denote the systemi on which you commence or open your game when you get your first lead.

Plain suits are the three suits not trumps. Re-entry. A card of re-entry is one that will, by winning a trick, bring you the lead at an advanced period of the hand.

Renounce. When a player has none of the suit led he is said to renounce that suit.

Revoke. If he fails to follow suit when he has any of the suit, he revokes, and incurs a serious penalty. Ruffing is another word for trumping a suit of which you have none.

Score. The counting or marking of the progress of the game. Attention to the score, which is very necessary in playing, refers not only to the progress, but also to the prospects of the game, as evidenced by the tricks made and honors held in the current hand.

Seesaw, or saw, is when each of two partners ruffs a different suit, so that they may lead alternately into each other's hands.

Sequence. Any number of cards in consecutive order, as king, queen, and knave. The ace, queen, and ten would form a sequence if the king and knave were out.

A tierce is a sequence of three cards; a quart of four; and a quint of five.

A head sequence is one standing at the head of the suit in your hand, even though it may not contain the best card. A Subordinate sequence is one standing lower down, and it is an intermediate sequence if you hold cards both higher and lower.

Short suit. One of which you hold originally not more than three cards. See Strength.

Signal for Trumps. - Throwing away unnecessarily and contrary to ordinary play, a high card before a low one, is called the signal for trumps, or asking for trumps; being a command to your partner to lead trumps the first opportunity-a command which, in the modern scientific game, he is bound to obey, whatever his own hand may be.

Singleton. A French name for one card only of a

suit.

Strength, Strong Suit, Strong Hand. These are terms which it is highly essential to have clearly defined, as their interpretation lies at the root of the theory of the modern scientific game.

The cards of any suit contained in your hand may vary in two different ways; as regards number, and as regards rank.

As regards number of cards-as there are thirteen cards to divide among four persons, it is clear that three cards or less will be under the average, while

four cards or more will be over the average due to

each person.

Again, as to rank, the middle card of a suit is the eight; any cards you hold above this may be considered high cards; any below, low cards.

Now, it has been the habit to use the terins strength and weakness, as applied indiscriminately to either number or rank-a practice which, though no doubt it may be defended analogically, is yet calculated to cause great confusion in the mind of the student, inasmuch as the two things must be very differently regarded in any scientific system of play. If, for example, a strong suit has been spoken of, it might mean either one in which you possess a large number of cards (as, say, the two, three, four, five, six, and seven), or in which you hold only a few very high ones, as, say, ace, king, and queen; the former being numerical strength, the latter strength of

rank.

This twofold meaning has, however, become so firmly implanted in Whist nomenclature that it would be useless to attempt to eradicate it. All we can do is to endeavor to get a little more perspicuity by using as much as possible the term long suit to indicate strength in numbers, leaving the word strong to apply chiefly to high cards.

Thus any suit of which you hold four or more will be called a long suit, being longer than the average. Any suit of three or less will be called a short suit, being shorter than the average.

When we speak of a strong suit, we shall generally refer to one containing cards of a higher than average rank, and of a weak suit the contrary.

A long suit will naturally have a greater chance of containing high cards than a short one, and this is probably the reason why the confusion of terms has arisen.

A strong hand is difficult to define, further than as one likely to make many tricks; a weak one the contrary. The terms are often misused when parts of the hand only are referred to; as, for example, when you are advised to lead up to the weak hand,' which merely refers to a hand weak in the particular suit you lead.

Strengthening play is getting rid of high cards in any suit, the effect of which is to give an improved value to the lower cards of that suit still remaining in, and so to strengthen the hand that holds them. Strengthening play is most beneficial to the hand that is longest in the suit.

Tenace. A tenace, in modern Whist,* is understood to mean the combination, in the same hand, of the best and third best card for the time being of

* The old writers, as Hoyle and Mathews, use this word as referring rather to the position than the cards; but the meaning in the text is the more modern one.