"Yes," I went on, "we shall all be grown-up in no time, and then dreadful things will happen. You and Horry will go off goodness knows where, and I shall be left alone. You are my last rose of summer, Moore. Not that I ever cared as much for Terence and Gerald as for you and Horace as companions. Terry has always been a bit of a prig, and Gerald too mad about soldiering, even though he doesn't find it easy to pass his examinations. Horace and you are my special brothers, aren't you, Othello?" Moore squeezed my arm in token of affection. He was like a girl in many of his ways as well as in his looks--demonstrative and caressing, yet brave as a lion and essentially manly. "You'll have _me_ for ages yet," he said consolingly, "at least for holidays; and perhaps the dreadful things won't all be on the side of us boys. You'll be going and getting married, Reggie, once you're grown-up. Oh, _how_ I shall hate your husband!" I could not help laughing at his vehemence. "Wait till he exists to be hated," I said. "You really needn't trouble about _him_. Perhaps there will never be such a person. Anyway, girls don't often marry as young as I am, so you can count upon me quite as securely as I can count upon you." How lightly we spoke! "And we shall have a longer time together now, thanks to going to these baths and places, than since I first went to school, four years ago. So after all you should count it a compliment to yourself, Rex, that I am so pleased about it." Once my father decided upon anything, there was no danger of his letting the grass grow under his feet, or any one else's, till it was accomplished. We were then in early autumn; there was no time to be lost if we were to benefit by the waters of Weissbad. So within a very few days of the morning which had brought the great doctor's letter of advice, we found ourselves there--my parents, Moore, and myself, though father only stayed to see us comfortably installed, promising to return when the time came for our further move to winter quarters. I have no intention of describing the quaint little watering-place. It had its own peculiarities, of course, as every place, no less than every individual, has, but in a general way it was like scores of others. And these general characteristics are now-a-days too familiar to be interesting--now-a-days, when an intimate acquaintance with Western Europe by no means gives one a right to rank as having travelled to any noticeable extent. It was a nice little place, cheery and homely. We liked it better than we had expected, partly, no doubt, because we were specially favoured as to weather; partly, or greatly, perhaps I should say, because the beneficial effects of the place on my mother and brother became quickly and most satisfactorily visible.