"And just as difficult to get rid of. I'd like to wring their necks, and every Russian's at Sebastopol."
"Mentschikoff could not have been a bad fellow, anyway."
"How do you know that?"
"Why, one of our officers who was taken prisoner at Inkerman has just come back to camp. I heard him say that while he was in Sebastopol he got a letter from his young woman at home. She said she hoped he would take Mentschikoff prisoner, and send her home a button off his coat."
"Well?"
"The letter was read by the Russian authorities before they gave it him, and some one told the general what the English girl had said."
"He got mad, I suppose?"
"Not at all. He sent on the letter to its destination, with a note of his own, presenting his compliments, and regrets that he could not allow himself to be taken prisoner, but saying that he had much pleasure in inclosing the button, for transmission to England."
"A regular old brick, and no mistake! We'll drink his health."
It was drunk with full honours, after which Hyde, finding the party inclined to be rather too noisy, got up to go.