THE BRIDGE FIENDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17569, 20 June 1925, Page 23 (Supplement)

THE BRIDGE FIENDS.

WOMEN WHO ARE CAUGHT IN ITS TOILS. A haze of cigarette smoke, a subdued lnurtnum of hushed voices, women With' abrupt manners and hard brooding ovos that seem to. be always intent on some hidden problem. Where do they come from and what ar c their ! lives when they arc away irorn the Bridge Club and the cards and the green tables? j The pretty, fair-haired wc-ixan, a : littl© over-dressed, and more than a j little over-painted, spends most of her ! days here, not because she really enjoys it, but boeausc she has no . other interests or occupations. She | lives in a tiny service flat; she is • a widow; she has no children, and no household worries; and always, in an aimless, desultory sort of way, she is unhappy and discontented. She knows she is getting older, that men do not admire her as much as they used to, that she has tower friends and fewer amusements, ■ and that there seems nothing to look forward to. The littlo old lady with the Early Victorian Ivit, the onyx brooch, and faded, wrinkled face comes here to see young faces, to hear now and then a little laughter, to be warm, and to forget. She lives all alone with an elderly maid. but she catches a glimpse of a busy, modern world, she wins or loses a few shillings, and goes home again to her loneliness and her memories. The thin, sharp-faced spinster next to her comes here after a bard day’s work on a. Board of Guardians. She has never been pretty, she has never had any romance in her life, and to come to the club is her one recreation. She lives in a furnished room, and she is very hard up. If she wins it means she can afford herself some fruit, a bunch of flowers, a, glass of port; if she loses it means she will have to do without a fire. Tb c tall woman with the dark hair brushed back from her forehead, with the hard brown eyes and the beautiful clothes, comes here, as she gees everywhere, for the sake of the game alone. People are to her just shadows with names, who play cither well or badly. What they do, what they think of. or where they go once they get up from the table she does not knew or care. She has n big house, a husband, children. She does rot neglect them really, but all the time she is engaging governesses, interviewing servants, listening to her husband’s grievances, seeing her dressmaker, sitting in the dentist's chair, she is thinking of the cards—-;f she had Hayed a heart instead of a. spade; if Miss K. had declared No Trumps, if Mrs S. had not led a diamond. For her it is a necessity, almost a rice—for some it is a rest, for seme an opiate, for others an amusement. So c—rli of them, unhappy, restless, discontented, finds in the game what she has come for, and goes away a little more at peace, a little richer, ox*, perhaps a little poorer.—MeHel TV’ohnnan in tl:<e London “ Evening