Glass number two was not so bad. Glass number three .... less unpalatable than glass number two--glass number four ... um, between number three and number four a considerable time was allowed to elapse, as I found I had been going it too fast. But now my enfeebled health is gradually being renovated, and they tell me that when I leave this, I shall be "quite another man." I don't know what other man I shall be. Yes I do. I am now a single man. I hope to leave here a double, I mean a married man. Cox, my boy, that's what you've come here for. Cox, my boy, that's why you want to keep, diplomatically, Box, my boy, in England, and in ignorance of your proceedings. Herr Cox, you're a sly dog. If I could give myself a dig in the ribs without any internal injury, I'd do it. I came here for the rheumatism. By the way I needn't have come here for _that_, as I'd got it pretty strongly. I caught it, without any sort of trouble. I bathed, at Margate, in the rain. Before I could reach my bathing machine, I was drenched through and through, I don't know where to, but long beyond the skin. The injury was more than skin deep. No amount of exterior scrubbings could cure me. Brandies and waters hot internally, every day for two months, produced more than the desired effect. I began to wander. I finished by travelling. And here I am. In six more lessons on the sulphur spring, I shall be quite the Cure. (_Dances and sings._) "The Cure, the Cure, the Cure, &c." (_Great applause: from the Signor especially._) _Enter WAITER._ (_More applause. An elderly lady with eye-glasses asks audibly if that isn't _Captain Byrton_?_) WAITER (_putting newspaper on table_). Aachen Zeitung, Herr Cox. (_More applause for his German accent._) [Illustration: THE WAITER.] COX. Nein danky. I mean, no thank you. Nix--nein--don't want any. WAITER. Nein, Herr Cox, zis ees de baber--de daily baber at Aix. Beebels come. [_Exit._ (_The Signor here observes aloud, "_Eet is so like ven I----_" Madame says, sternly, "_Hush, Mr. Regniati_," and he contents himself by finishing with a wink privately to me._) COX. Ja. Goot. I flatter myself I'm getting on with my German. Here's the arrival column .. English .. I look at this every day ... because ... um (_reading it_) ... "Mr. and Mrs. Bloater, from Yarmouth, and all the little Bloaters ... Major Bouncer" ... goodness gracious! how extraordinary!... Major Bouncer ... Oh it can't be the same, it must be one of his ancestors ... or his posterity ... "Major Bouncer of the Royal Banbury Light Horse" ... pooh! fancy Bouncer on a light horse! Ride a cock horse To Banbury gorse To see Major Bouncer Upon a light horse; Rings on his fingers ....