The Argosy — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

8o Checkmate in Ten Moves. work it off, and the subject being so profitable the editor’s pen was actively employed in preparation for the next day’s demand. Poor M. le Maire! From all we heard—for he did not come near us till the excitement was over—he made several attempts to disabuse the world of its error, and rid himself of the honours heaped on his reluctant head. But he soon found he should only make himself un- popular by convincing people against their will, and was fain to be a hero, where his conscience told him he had been only a sentinel off his guard. An unexpected change in my fortunes, with which my story has no concern, took me back to England, and it was on the eve of my marriage, nearly three years after the events I have been relating, that I received a box from Bavaria, containing the most exquisitely carved set of wooden chessmen I had ever seen. Each piece was a study. I had never met with any Eastern ivory work to compare with this in finish and grace. A letter followed the gift, explaining that it was the work of Ulrich Leinhardt, a faint token of the gratitude never dormant in his soul ; and imploring as the greatest possible favour to the writer—his no less grateful wife that if we visited the Continent on our wedding tour, we would spare a little time to them in their Bavarian home. Ulrich’s campaign had ended in honour and safety, and he had inherited the family property, to which he had some months earlier carried his beloved Mariette. Their happiness—my work—had only one draw- back: they could not recollect the problem that had been their deliverance, and it would be the crowning joy of their lives to see me and mine in their home, and realise for once the scene in which they had played so perilous a part. We could not gratify them at that time; but it has been a standing promise ever since, that our first Bavarian tour should. include the Algau, and make us Mariette’s guests. I do not think my husband quite believes in the problem, but Eleanor (who gave up her school after Mariette’s marriage, and settled in our neighbourhood) assures us that M. le Maire still pronounces it the wonder of the world ; and consoles himself for much by maintain- ing that only a Frenchman’s intellect could calculate beforehand, from a given point of the game, a Checkmate in Ten Moves. ECONMIELICOO_ KS, (E0) | = \