The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: shells for counters; their course was much marred by cheating; and
the end of a round (above all if a man was of the party) resolved
itself into a scrimmage for the counters. The fifth was a matron.
It was a picture to see her sail to church on a Sunday, a parasol
in hand, a nursemaid following, and the baby buried in a trade hat
and armed with a patent feeding-bottle. The service was enlivened
by her continual supervision and correction of the maid. It was
impossible not to fancy the baby was a doll, and the church some
European playroom. All these women were legitimately married. It
is true that the certificate of one, when she proudly showed it,
proved to run thus, that she was 'married for one night,' and her
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