Thus began my friendship with Frank Wildacre--a friendship which was destined to bring sorrow as well as joy into my life. Do I wish that I had never known him, and so had escaped all the pain that he was foredoomed to cause me? I cannot say. Life would doubtless have been far easier for me had he never crossed my path. But on the other hand he was part of the great adventure on which I embarked when I forsook my backwater, and I still feel for him--after all that has happened--that sense of comradeship which the sharing of an adventure always leaves behind it after the battles and the bitterness are over and done with. I think that is the reason why--as one grows older--one feels an interest in people one knew when one was young, even if one felt no interest in them at the time. They were part of the great adventure of one's youth. CHAPTER IV FAY The intimacy between Frank Wildacre and myself developed apace. We discussed everything from Shakespeare to the musical glasses (whatever that may mean), and found ourselves wonderfully agreed on most points. On the few points where we did not see eye to eye, our differences were as pleasant as our agreements, for Frank loved argument for argument's sake, and never came within a mile of losing his temper. In my humble opinion people who lose their tempers over arguments are as tiresome as people who lose their tempers over games, and both should respectively be talked to and played with at the expense of the State rather than of Society. Frank not only firmly established himself in my affections: he made equally secure resting-places in the affections of Annabel and Arthur, and even of Ponty. But--so weak was I--it flattered my vanity to perceive that in his eyes I found the most favour of the four. It was so delightful to feel myself in touch with youth, and to know that youth was not altogether out of touch with me. The angel of youth stirred the pool of my backwater, and rippled the stagnant surface with the breath of healing. "You seem to have taken to Frank," Annabel remarked. "I am glad, as it will be so nice for him to have a friend like you." "I should rather put it that it will be nice for me to have a friend like him." Already a week's intimacy with young Wildacre had shaken my hitherto unquestioning acceptance of the dogma that one's elders are of necessity one's betters; but nothing would ever shake Annabel's. "That is an absurd way of looking at it, Reggie. Young people may be rather a nuisance to us, but we must always be a help and comfort to them, and especially when--as in Frank's case--they have no parents of their own. You will try to prove next that even parents are no help to the young!"