Chevalier Galban excused himself on the plea that he only played hazard, and that for high stakes.
"Well, then, sit down and have a game of chess with my wife. But look to your laurels; Bethsaba plays a good game."
Thus Chevalier Galban settled to a game that is the greatest hazard in all the world, and is played for the highest stakes of all.
CHAPTER XLVIII
THE MOUSE PLAYS WITH THE CAT
The men flung their cards upon the table as though they meant to make it suffer, and after every game set to quarrelling. "This card should have been played, not that, for we were winning!"
The men said things to each other which, had not the cards been in their hands, must have led to affairs of honor. In the opposite corner of the room things went much more quietly. Here they only spoke in whispers, as is customary at chess.
"Sun of my life, now you can see of what a wounded heart is capable! Who other than a man made a very fool by his love would be paying visits at such a time?"
"Then you have not fled, in the political chaos, from the capital?"
"I? It is my element, in which I live as a fish does in water. It is my natural element. There has not been a change of sovereign throughout Europe at which I have not assisted. When Mars armed himself for the battle-field I was the Mercury who bore his message. It is in order to win your smile that I have rent a career in sunder, have thrust a princely crown from me."
"And if I do not smile?"