He went in at once to the general's, but was told that he was engaged with the quartermaster and adjutant generals.

He therefore went into the anteroom where Tollemache, his fellow aide-de-camp, was standing at the window, looking out at the rain.
"This is a beastly climate," he grumbled.

"It is awful to think that we are likely to get another two months of it; and shall then have to wait at least another, before the country is dry enough to make a move.

You were lucky in getting in, just now, before it began." "I was indeed," Stanley agreed, "for I had ridden off without my cloak, and should have been drenched, had it begun two minutes earlier." "I saw you gallop past, and wondered what you were in such a hurry about.

Was it like this when you were out in the woods ?" "Not in the least.