He went for a year's big game shooting in North America.
We don't miss him much, as he lived in London, and was not often
down at his place. I don't remember his being there since you came
back from the Crimea. Anyhow, I do not think that I ever saw you
and him together, either in a hunting field or at a dinner party;
which, of course, you would have been had you both been down here
at the same time. If I remember right, you were at the same
school."
And then followed some gossip about mutual friends, and the letter
concluded:
"The general excitement is calming down a little now that Delhi is
taken and the garrison of Lucknow brought off. Of course there will
be a great deal more fighting before the whole thing is over, but
there is no longer any fear for the safety of India. The Sikhs have
come out splendidly. Who would have thought it after the tremendous
thrashing we gave them a few years back?
"Take care of yourself, lad. You have the Victoria Cross and can do
very well without a bar, so give someone else the chance. My wife
and Bertha send their love."
Two or three of his other letters were from friends in regiments at
home bewailing their hard fortune at being out of the fighting.
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