all, there was something disconcerting about this surprise trick of his. It was just a practised pose, of course; still, one could not help feeling, and resenting in it, that impression of the preternatural it was no doubt his desire to convey. I responded, with some commonplace acknowledgment, to the back of his head, and no more was spoken for the moment. Almost immediately the game came to an end. M. le Baron sat back in his chair with a “My mate, I think?”—a claim in which his opponent acquiesced. Half the pieces were still on the board, but that made no difference. Your supreme chess expert will foresee, at a certain point in the contest, all the possible moves to come or to be countered, and will accept without dispute the inevitable issue. The great man Stothard was beaten and acknowledged it. 

 M. le Baron rose from his seat, and turned on me with a beaming face. 

 “Happy to renew your acquaintance, Mr. Bickerdike,” he said. “You are a student of the game?” 

 “Not much better, I think,” I answered. “I am still in my novitiate.” 

 “You would not care——?” 

 “O, no, I thank you! I’m not gull enough to invite my own plucking.” 

 It was a verbal stumble rather than a designed impertinence on my part, and I winced over my own rudeness the moment it was uttered, the more so for the composure with which it was received. 

 “No, that would be foolish, indeed,” said M. le Baron. 

 I floundered in a silly attempt to right myself. 

 “I mean—I only meant I’m just a rotten muff at the game, while you——” I stuck, at a loss. 

 “While I,” he said with a smile, “have just, like David, brought down the giant Stothard with a lucky shot.” 

 He touched my arm in token of the larger tolerance; and, in some confusion, I made a movement as of invitation, towards the table in the window. 

 “I am obliged,” he said, “but I have this moment recalled an appointment.” “So,” I thought, “in inventing a pretext for declining, he administers a gentle rebuke to my cubbishness.” “You found your friend, I hope,” he asked, “when you left the Montesquieu on that occasion?” 

 “Kennett? Yes,” I 

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