The dead past is never allowed to bury its dead; the genealogical dust-heap is always liable to be raked up, and even innocuous ancestors may be traduced to the third and fourth generation.
Now it so happened that Mrs.Isaacs and Mrs.Jacobs were sisters.

And when it dawned upon them into what dilemma their automatic methods of carte and tierce had inveigled them, they were frozen with confusion.
They retired crestfallen to their respective parlors, and sported their oaks.

The resources of repartee were dried up for the moment.

Relatives are unduly handicapped in these verbal duels; especially relatives with the same mother and father.
Presently Mrs.Isaacs reappeared.

She had thought of something she ought to have said.