E. R. Punshon

“ One day he called Dunn up to admire a problem he had just composed.
“Pretty clever, eh?” he said, admiring his own work with much complacence. “Quite an original idea of mine and I think the key move will take some finding. What do you say? I suppose you do play chess?”
“Only a very little,” answered Dunn.
“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. ”

“ John Clive, who had come often, was laid up. But one or two of the people from the village came occasionally, and the vicar appeared two or three times every week, ostensibly to play chess with Deede Dawson, but in reality, Dunn thought, drawn there by Ella, who, however, seemed quite unaware of the attraction she exercised over the good man. ”

“ Clive of Ramsdon Place ought to make a better match.
“But a pretty face is all a young man thinks of,” said the more experienced; and on the whole, it seemed to be felt that the open attention Clive paid to Ella was at least easily to be understood.
Almost the first visit Clive paid, when he was allowed to venture out, was to Bittermeads; and Dunn, returning one afternoon from an errand, found him established on the lawn in the company of Ella, and looking little the worse for his adventure. ”