He went into the long drawing-room, and shut the door.

Then he got the ivory chessmen out of the Buhl cabinet, and set them out on that delightful chess-table whose chequers are of mother-of-pearl and ivory, and tried to play a game, right hand against left.

But right hand, who was white, and so moved first, always won.

He gave up after awhile, and put the chessmen away in their proper places.

Then he got out the big book of photographs of pictures, but they did not seem interesting, so he tried the ivory spellicans.