I beg you not to be startled: but if you are, then test the truth of mytheory by playing to-night at the game called ‘Russian Scandal;’ in whicha story, repeated in secret by one player to the other, comes out at theend of the game, owing to the inaccurate and–forgive me if I sayit–uneducated brains through which it has passed, utterly unlike itsoriginal; not only ludicrously maimed and distorted, but often with themost fantastic
