"Try a game with me," said Deede Dawson, and won it easily, for in
fact, Dunn was by no means a strong player.

His swift victory appeared to delight Deede Dawson immensely.

"A very pretty mate I brought off there against you," he declared.
"I've not often seen a prettier. Now you try to solve that problem
of mine, it's easy enough once you hit on the key move."

Dunn thought to himself that there were other and more important
problems which would soon be solved if only the key move could be
discovered.

He said aloud that he would try what he could do, and Deede Dawson
promised him half a sovereign if he solved it within a week.

"I mayn't manage it within a week," said Dunn. "I don't say I will.
But sooner or later I shall find it out."

During all this time he had seen little of Ella, who appeared to
come very little into the garden and who, when she did so, avoided
him in a somewhat marked manner.

Her mother, Mrs. Dawson, was a little faded woman, with timid eyes
and a frightened manner. Her health did not seem to be good, and
Ella looked after her very assiduously. That she went in deadly
fear of her husband was fairly evident, though he seemed to treat
her always with great consideration and kindness and even with a
show of affection, to which at times she responded and from which
at other times she appeared to shrink with inexplicable terror.