CHAPTER V.

LEAVING THE EARTH.


"Check!"

I was playing a game of chess with an old acquaintance, Viscount ----,
after dinner, one evening, in the luxurious smoking-room of a
fashionable club in the West End of London.

Having got his queen into a very tight corner, I sipped a glass of wine,
lit a Turkish cigarette, and leaned back in my chair with an agreeable
sense of triumph.

My companion, on the other hand, puffed rapidly at his cigar, and took a
long drink of hot whiskey and water, then fixed his attention on the
board, and stroked his beard with an air of the deepest gravity. Had you
only seen his face at that moment you would have supposed that all the
care of a mighty empire weighed upon his shoulders. The countenance of a
grand vizier, engaged in considering an ultimatum of Lord Salisbury,
were frivolous in comparison. There is little doubt that if Lord ----
had applied to the serious business of life as much earnest deliberation
as he gave to the movement of a pawn, he would have made a very
different figure in Society. But having been born without any effort of
his own to all that most men covet--rank, wealth, and title--he showed a
rare spirit of contentment, and did his best to make the world happier
by enjoying himself.