"Now I happened to know the game, and to be particularly fond of it; so, restless as I felt otherwise, I gave the old nabob a quiet nod, laid down my griffin-looking straw hat on the sofa, and in two minutes there we were, sitting opposite over a splendid China-made chess-board, with elephants, emperors, mandarins, and Chinamen, all square and ataunto, as if they'd been set ready for days. The dark _kitmagar_ commenced fanning over his master's head with a bright feather punka, the other native servant handed him his twisted hookah and lighted it, after which he folded his arms and stood looking down on the board like a pundit at some campaign of the Great Mogul; while the judge himself waited for my first move, as if it had been some of our plain English fellows in Hindostan commencing against your whole big India hubbub and finery, to get hold of it all in the end. For my part I sat at first all of a tingle and tremble, thinking how near his lovely daughter might be; and there were the breakfast-cups laid out on a round table at the other side, behind me.
"However, I made my move, Sir Charles made his, and pitched into the game in a half-impatient, half long-headed sort of way, anxious to get to the thick of it, as it were, once more. Not a word was said, and you only heard the suck of the smoke bubbling through the water-bottle of his pipe, after each move the judge made; till I set myself to the play in right earnest, and, owing to the old gentleman's haste at the beginning, or his over-sharpness, I hooked him into a mess with which I used to catch the old hands at chess in the cockpit, just by fancying what _they_ meant to be at. The judge lifted his head, looked at me, and went on again. 'Your queen is in check, Sir Charles!' said I, next time, by way of a polite hint. '_Check_, though, young gentleman!' said he, chuckling, as he dropped one of his outlandish knights, which I wasn't yet up to the looks of, close to the windward of my blessed old Turk of a king; so the skirmish was just getting to be a fair set-to, when I chanced to lift my eyes, and saw the door from the after-cabin open, with Miss Hyde coming through. 'Now, papa,' exclaimed she on the moment, 'you must come to breakfast'--when all of a sudden, at seeing another man in the cabin, she stopped short. Being not so loud and griffin-like in my toggery that morning, and my hat off, the young lady didn't recognise me at first--though the next minute, I saw by her colour and her astonished look, she not only did that, but something else--no doubt remembering at last where she had seen me ashore. 'Well, child,' said the judge, 'make haste with it, then!--Recollect where we are, now, young gentleman--and come to breakfast.' She had a pink muslin morning-dress on, with her brown hair done up like the Virgin Mary in a picture, and the sea had taken almost all the paleness off her cheek that it had in the ball-room at Epsom, a month or two ago--and, by Jove! when I saw her begin to pour out the tea out of the silver teapot, I didn't know _where_ I was! 'Oh, I forgot,' said the judge, waving his hand from me to her, in a hurry, 'Mr Robins, Violet! ho, _kitmagar_, curry l'ao!' 'Oh,' said she, stiffly, with a cold turn of her pretty lip, 'I have met Mr--Mr----' 'Collins, ma'am,' said I. 'I have met this gentleman by accident _before_.' 'So you have--so you have,' said her father; 'but you play chess well, Mr--a--a--what's his name?--ah! Colly. Gad, you play _well_, sir--we must have it out!'