Unfortunately, in those early days, it was left to the discretion
of the telegraphist to compress the messages which passed through
his hands; so that the result was that Lord Panmure's delicate
appeal reached its destination in the laconic form of 'Look after
Dowb'. The Headquarters Staff were at first extremely puzzled;
they were at last extremely amused. The story spread; and 'Look
after Dowb' remained for many years the familiar formula for
describing official hints in favour of deserving nephews.
And now that all this was over, now that Sebastopol had been,
somehow or another, taken; now that peace was, somehow or
another, made; now that the troubles of office might surely be
expected to be at an end at last-- here was Miss Nightingale
breaking in upon the scene with her talk about the state of the
hospitals and the necessity for sanitary reform. It was most
irksome; and Lord Panmure almost began to wish that he was
engaged upon some more congenial occupation--discussing, perhaps,
the constitution of the Free Church of Scotland--a question in
which he was profoundly interested. But no; duty was paramount;
and he set himself, with a sigh of resignation, to the task of
doing as little of it as he possibly could.
'The Bison' his friends called him; and the name fitted both his
physical demeanour and his habit of mind.
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