"My wishes have naught to do with this matter. I was following the most elementary dictates of prudence."
He touched the handbell and rang. A liveried servant appeared.
"Had I not told thee, sirrah," said His Eminence, "that my lord Everingham had kindly consented to give me my revanche at chess ere he departed? How is it that the board has not been prepared?"
"I crave Your Eminence's most humble pardon," protested the man in confusion. "I had not understood . . ."
"Not understood?" laughed the Cardinal good-naturedly. "Marry! the knave doth impugn my knowledge of the English tongue."
"I would not presume, Your Eminence . . ."
"Tush, man! hold thy tongue and repair thy negligence. Where's the board? His lordship hath but an hour to spare."
Everingham watched with ill-concealed impatience the elaborate preparations made for the game. He thought it quite unnecessary, and had he dared he would have refused to join in the senseless deception. But in this matter he had ceased to trust his own judgment, and, much against his will, was allowing the Cardinal to take the lead. He felt out of his own intellectual depths in this slough of intrigue wherein he had so impulsively ventured, and out of which he now felt incapable of extricating himself.
Simple-minded and loyal to the core, he had a horror of any treachery against his friend. No other consideration would ever have prompted him to join in an underhand scheme with the Spanish Cardinal, save his own earnest faith in the ultimate good which would accrue therefrom, both to the country at large and to Wessex himself. With his whole heart and soul he believed that, at this moment, the Duke's marriage with Lady Ursula Glynde would be nothing short of a national calamity.
Reluctantly, he sat down to the board at last. His Eminence, opposite to him, was shading his face with his delicate white hand, and at first seemed absorbed in the intricacies of the game. Two servitors were still busy about the room. One of them asked if His Eminence would desire more light.