They came forward with greetings and inquiries, which Johnny answered
in detail.
"Yes, they are both better. Armine sat by the window for an hour the
day before I came away."
"Will they be able to come back to Eton after the holidays?" asked
his father.
"Certainly not Armine, but Jock seems to be getting all right. If he
was to catch rheumatism he did it at the right place, for that's what
Leukerbad is good for. Oh, Babie, you never saw such a lark! Fancy
a great room, and where the floor ought to be, nothing but muddy
water or liquid mud, with steps going down, and a lot of heads
looking out of it, some with curly heads, some in smoking-caps, some
in fine caps of lace and ribbons."
"Oh! Johnny; like women!"
"Like women! They are women."
"Not both together."
"Yes, I tell you, the whole boiling of them, male and female.
There's a fat German Countess, who always calls Jock her liebes Kind,
and comes floundering after him, to his very great disgust. The only
things they have to show they are human still, and not frogs, are
little boards floating before them with their pocket-handkerchiefs
and coffee-cups and newspapers."
"Oh! like the little blacks in the dear bright bays at San
Ildefonso," cried Elvira.
"You don't mean that they have no clothes on?" said Babie, with
shocked downrightness of speech that made everybody laugh; and Johnny
satisfied her on that score, adding that Dr.
Pages:
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441