The scoffer stood a long time, as if suddenly struck by a thunderbolt, staring with amazement at the prophet. Soon collecting himself, however, he strode out of the room.
'What was that?' asked count Posse, looking inquiringly at Megret. The latter, visibly disturbed, shuffled the cards anew, and at length said with a forced smile, 'one fool makes many others.'
'That was too much in earnest for folly,' thought Posse.
'If it be agreeable to you,' said Arwed in ill humor to Kolbert, 'we will leave our game unfinished. I have no longer the ability to play. My head has become unusually disturbed by the strange conversation to which I have been compelled to listen.'
Kolbert, acquiescing, threw the chessmen in a heap. Arwed stepped to the pharo table and seized some cards which were quickly thrown to him.
'Take the king,' said Swedenborg to him: 'he is the banker's enemy.'
Megret was evidently startled, and with a Vehemence vastly disproportionate to the occasion, he asked Swedenborg, 'what do you mean? Do you intend to insult me?'
'He who is evil has evil thoughts,' answered Swedenborg quietly. 'I gave to my young friend good advice, founded upon my calculations of the game.'
'I prefer to advise myself,' said Arwed,--impatient of the obtrusiveness of the stranger,--retaining the old cards which uninterruptedly fell from the banker.
'Make the experiment with the king once, to gratify me,' begged Kolbert in an under tone, 'if only from curiosity. If you lose we shall then be enabled to ridicule your adviser.'