my mother gracefully sought to ease their consternation , by dismissing my infirmity as the residue of a trifling fall suffered at some unspecified , but fairly recent , date ; but she was shortly afterward summoned away by the siren call of the card-room , and left to the kindly words and sympathetic glances of her ladies-in-waiting , i was soon confiding in them , as my mothers most trusted friends , a more complete account of my frailty and decrepitude .