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such formality. I did not like Mr. Kelada. I had put aside the cards
when he sat down, but now, thinking that for this first occasion our
conversation had lasted long enough, I went on with my game.
"The three on the four," said Mr. Kelada.
There is nothing more exasperating when you are playing
patience than to be told where to put the card you have turned up
before you have had a chance to look for yourself.
"It's coming out, it's coming out," he cried. "The ten on the
knave."
With rage and hatred in my heart I finished.
Then he seized the pack.
"Do you like card tricks?"
"No, I hate card tricks," I answered.
"Well, I'll just show you this one."
He showed me three. Then I said I would go down to the
dining-room and get my seat at table.
"Oh, that's all right," he said. "I've already taken a seat for you.
I thought that as we were in the same state-room we might just as
well sit at the same table."
I did not like Mr. Kelada.
I not only shared a cabin with him and ate three meals a day at
the same table, but I could not walk round the deck without his
joining me. It was impossible to snub him. It never occurred to him
that he was not wanted. He was certain that you were as glad to see
him as he was to see you. In your own house you might have kicked
him downstairs and slammed the door in his face without the
suspicion dawning on him that he was not a welcome visitor. He was
a good mixer, and in three days knew everyone on board. He ran
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everything. He managed the sweeps , conducted the auctions,
collected money for prizes at the sports, got up quoit and golf
matches, organized the concert and arranged the fancy-dress ball. He
was everywhere and always. He was certainly the best hated man in
the ship. We called him Mr. Know-All, even to his face. He took it as
a compliment. But it was at mealtimes that he was most intolerable.
For the better part of an hour then he had us at his mercy. He was
hearty, jovial, loquacious and argumentative. He knew everything
better than anybody else, and it was an his overweening vanity that

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sweeps: лотерея