"Why don't you sit down, Mr. Soldier?" she says at last; "don't you see that chair there? And here have I been dusting it so nicely for you."
"A pretty thing for an orderly to sit down in the General's ante-chamber," replies the defender of his country. "Short irons would be very soon ready for me, I can tell you."
"Then why are you here at all?"
"That is not for your ears, my little sister."
"You are looking for the General, eh? Well, he is inside that room there along with my lady, his wife—why don't you go in?"
"You've a nice idea of manners, I must say! What! an orderly to make his way into the room of the General's lady!"
"Then give the letter here and I'll take it in for you."
"Now, my little sister, that's quite enough! What! deliver a letter into the hands of anybody but the person to whom it is addressed!"
"Do you know how to write, Mr. Orderly?"
"What a question! Ask me another! Why, if I could write I should have become a sergeant long ago."