The chapter opens with a soliloquy in which the narrator laments the fact that he is unable to play the card game because of his knee injury. He laments that his wife has been unable to keep up with his game, and that the noise of his opponent's cards is making him nervous. He wonders if he would have been able to play if he had not been so careful with his knee. The narrator then describes the physical difficulties that he has faced in playing the game. He compares his opponent to a "first mete" who pretends to be a "cock" and then "leaps the guns" at his opponent. He says that the cilia, the inner parts of the body that hold the cards, begin to wear away when air is moved away from them. He decides that he will find another weapon to use against his opponent, and he asks his wife to send him a card if she thinks that the opponent is aiming at his right side. She replies that she knows grampa would be able to do this, and the narrator promises to be waiting for her.