“Sir Richard?”
“I don’t mind at all,” said Lambert.
“Half a crown a trick, then,” said Parry. “Waiter, fresh cards, if you please.”
Bush had hurriedly to revise his estimate of the amount of losses Hornblower could endure. With the stakes nearly trebled it would be bad if he lost a single rubber.
“You and I again, Mr. Hornblower,” said Parry, observing the cut. “You wish to retain your present seat?”
“I am indifferent, my lord.”
“I am not,” said Parry. “Nor am I yet so old as to decline to change my seat in accordance with the run of the cards. Our philosophers have not yet decided that it is a mere vulgar superstition.”
He heaved himself out of his chair and moved opposite Hornblower, and play began again, with Bush watching more anxiously even than at the start. He watched each side in turn take the odd trick, and then three times running he saw Hornblower lay the majority of tricks in front of him. During the next couple of hands he lost count of the score, but finally he was relieved to see only two tricks before the colonel when the rubber ended.
“Excellent,” said Parry, “a profitable rubber, Mr. Hornblower. I’m glad you decided to trump my knave of hearts. It must have been a difficult decision for you, but it was undoubtedly the right one.”
“It deprived me of a lead I could well have used,” said Lambert. “The opposition was indeed formidable, colonel.”