"If you will have the goodness to kiss her, mademoiselle," I
answered, "I will consider it an advance, and as one of the
council of the King's finances, my credit should be good for the
re--"
"Thank you!" the King cried, nimbly cutting me short. "But as
my finances seem to be the security, faith, I will see to the
repayment myself! Let them start again; but I am afraid that my
twenty crowns are yours, Grand Master; your man is in fine play."
I looked into the court. Diego, lithe and sinewy, with his
cropped black hair, high colour, and quick shallow eyes, bounded
here and there, swift and active as a panther. Seeing him thus,
with his heart in his returns, I could not but doubt; more, as
the game proceeded, amid the laughter and jests and witty sallies
of the courtiers, I felt the doubt grow; the riddle became each
minute more abstruse, the man more mysterious. But that was of
no moment now.
A little after four o'clock the match ended in my favour; on
which the King, tired of inaction, sprang up, and declaring that
he would try Diego's strength himself, entered the court.
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