Page:Dale - A Marriage Below Zero.djvu/120

114 played some of my beautiful "morceaux de salon," not because I liked them, but because it passed away the time and made a noise. I was not happy enough to indulge in any of the dainty little pieces in which I generally delighted when alone.

It was ten o'clock before they joined me. Captain Dillington congratulated me upon my "exquisite touch" and said a few conventional things, after which the two men sat down to a game of chess.

What a wearisome parody of amusement chess is, in my opinion; I suppose I am not intellectual enough to appreciate it. I remember I once tried to learn it, but I never could remember how to move the pawns, and always called out "check" at the most ridiculously inopportune moments.

I sat in a low rocking chair and yawned desperately. I made no pretense of occupying ' myself with fancy work, which I despised most cordially.

I took up the Times and tried to get interested in the agony column. I wondered what it was