“I know one who has. I daresay he’s an exception, though.”
“When I was at a private school,” remarked the Babe severely, “and a chap said a thing like that, we used to call him a funny ass.”
Reggie shouted.
“Good old Babe. Has the referee caught you yet? He belongs to this college, and he may be in any minute. In fact, I asked him to come to tea. I don’t know why he hasn’t.”
“If you want me to go, say so,” said the Babe.
“Not a bit of it. It was only for your sake I suggested it. Smoke.”
The Babe was limping about the room and came upon a set of chessmen.
“I want to play chess,” he said. “Chess is the most delightful game if you treat it as a game of pure chance. You ought to move your queen into the middle of the board and then see what happens. To reduce it to the level of a sum in advanced mathematics, is a scandal and an outrage. To calculate the effect of a move takes away all the excitement.”
“You may always calculate it wrong.”
“In that case it becomes a nuisance. Reggie, will you play?”