Lieutenant Hornblower. C. S. Forester

“You are too kind, my lord,” said Hornblower, taking the chair at the admiral’s right.

The next rubber began and progressed silently to its close.

“I am glad to see that the cards have decided to be kind to you, Mr Hornblower,” said Parry, “even though our honours have reduced your winnings. Fifteen shillings, I believe?”

“Thank you.” said Hornblower taking the money.

Bush remembered what Hornblower had said about being able to afford to lose three rubbers if he won the first two.

“Damned small stakes in my opinion, my lord,” said the colonel. “Must we play as low as this?”

“That is for the company to decide,” replied Parry. “I myself have no objection. Half a crown instead of a shilling? Let us ask Mr Hornblower.”

Bush turned to look at Hornblower with renewed anxiety

“As you will, my lord,” said Hornblower, with the most elaborate indifference.

“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.”

“Yes,” agreed the colonel, not quite as good‑temperedly.

“And twice I held hands neither an ace nor a king, which helped the opposition to be formidable. Can you give me change, Mr Hornblower?”

There was a five‑pound note among the money that the colonel handed over to Hornblower, and it went into the breast pocket of his coat.

“At least, colonel,” said Parry, when they cut again, “you have Mr Hornblower as your partner this time.”

As the rubber proceeded Bush was aware that the flag lieutenant beside him was watching with greater and greater interest.

“By the odd trick, by George.” said he when the last cards were played.

“That was a close shave, partner,” said the colonel, his good humour clearly restored. “I hoped you held that queen, but I couldn’t be sure.”

“Fortune was with us, sir,” said Hornblower.

The flag lieutenant glanced at Bush; it seemed as if the flag lieutenant was of opinion that the colonel should have been in no doubt, from the previous play, that Hornblower held the queen. Now that Bush’s attention was drawn to it, he decided that Hornblower must have thought just the same — the slightest inflection in his voice implied it — but was sensibly not saying so.

“I lose a rubber at five pounds ten and win one at fifteen shillings,” said the colonel, receiving his winnings from Lambert. “Who’d like to increase the stakes again?”

To the credit of the two admirals they both glanced at Hornblower without replying.

“As you gentlemen wish,” said Hornblower.

“In that case I’m quite agreeable,” said Parry.

“Five shillings a trick, then,” said the colonel. “That makes the game worth playing.”

“The game is always worth playing,” protested Parry.

“Of course, my lord,” said the colonel, but without suggesting that they should revert to the previous stakes.

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