"Yes, and there are the 'Sardines,'" said another pointing to the new uniform.
"Plenty of new arrivals. M. Soyer, the great cook, landed yesterday."
"What on earth brings him?"
"He is going to teach the troops to make omelettes and biscuit-soup."
"We were ahead of him in that, I think," said Hyde, winking at Anatole.
"He is with Miss Nightingale, you know, who has come out as head nurse."
"Heaven bless her!"
"Well, for all the new arrivals, we don't get on very fast with the siege."
"Why don't they go into the place, without all this shilly-shallying?" cried an impetuous Briton. "We'd take the place—we, the rank and file—if the generals only would let us do the work alone."
"They are a poor lot, the generals, I say."