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CHAPTER  IX.

THE     BATTLE     OF     BADEN.

Lord Rickmansworth was enjoying himself.
Over and above the particular pleasures for
whose sake he had come to Baden, he relished
intensely the new attitude in which he found
himself standing towards Ayre. Throughout
their previous acquaintance it had been Rick¬
mansworth who was eager and excited, Ayre
who applied the cold water. Now the parts
were reversed, and the younger man found
great delight in jocosely rallying his senior on
his unwonted zeal and activity. Ayre accepted
his friend's jocosity and his own excitement
with equal placidity. Reproaches had never
stirred him to exertion: ridicule would not
stop him now. He took leave to add himself
to the materials for slightly contemptuous
amusement that the world had hitherto afforded
him, and he found his own absurd actions a
very sensible addition to his resources. He
realised why people who never act on impulse
and never do uncalled-for things are not only
dull to others, but suffer boredom themselves.
However the Millstead love affairs affected the