Page:Kangaroo, 1923.pdf/64

 sounded different. There was something queer, unknown about him.

"I'll come over for a game of chess to-night, old man, if you'll say the word," he said to Somers. "And the ladies can punish the piano again meanwhile, if they feel like it. I bought something to sweeten the melodies with, and give us a sort of breathing-space now and then: sort of little ear-rest, you know."

"That means a pound of chocolates," said Victoria, like a greedy child. "And Mrs Somers will come and help me to eat them. Good!" And she ran in home. Somers thought of a picture advertisement in the Bulletin:

"Madge: I can't think what you see in Jack. He is so unintellectual."

"Gladys: Oh, but he always brings a pound of Billyer's chocolates."

Or else: "Sweets to the Sweet. Give her Billyer's chocolates"; or else: "Billyer's chocolates sweeten the home."

The game of chess was a very quiet one. Jack was pale and subdued, silent, tired, thought Somers, after his long day and short night. Somers too played without any zest. And yet they were satisfied, just sitting there together, a curious peaceful ease in being together. Somers wondered at it, the rich, full peace that there seemed to be between him and the other man. It was something he was not used to. As if one blood ran warm and rich between them. "Then shall thy peace be as a river."

"There was nothing wrong at the Trewhella's, was there, that made William James come so late?" asked Somers.

Jack looked up with a tinge of inquiry in his dark eyes at this question: as if he suspected something behind it. Somers flushed slightly.

"No, nothing wrong," said Jack.

"I beg your pardon for asking," said Somers hastily. "I heard a whistle when I'd just done setting the rat-traps, and I looked out, and heard you speak to him. That's how I knew who it was. I only wondered if anything was wrong."

"No, nothing wrong," repeated Jack laconically.

"That's all right," said Somers. "It's your move. Mind your queen."