“I had my first interview with Colonel Best-Dunkley this morning.  As Orderly Officer I was present at Commanding Officer’s Orders.  When he arrived at the Orderly Room he saw me and said: 

“’Who are you?  Let me see, I don’t think I have been introduced to you yet.  How are you?’

“I replied that my name was Floyd; and he shook hands quite genially!

“There were only two cases up for orders.  One man was there for cheeking a sergeant.  He had called the sergeant something which cannot be repeated here.

“‘Why the b——­ h——­ did you speak to an N.C.O. like that?’ exclaimed the Colonel in a Judge Jeffreys tone.  ’Will you take my sentence?  Or will you have a court martial?’ he demanded.

“The man replied that he would take the Colonel’s sentence.

“‘Fourteen days Field Punishment No. 1,’ snapped the Colonel.  Exit prisoner.

“After orders, Colonel Best-Dunkley asked me:  ’What is your strong point?’ I replied that I was sorry to have to say so, but I had none; I was not a specialist on anything.  He did not even then become annoyed, but went on asking me one or two other questions.  How long had I been gazetted?  ‘Not long,’ was his comment on my reply.  How long had I been in the Army?  What unit was I in before?  Where had I been educated?  When I had answered these questions he expressed himself satisfied; so I saluted and departed.  So I am on quite good terms with him so far, despite his terrible reputation!  The question is—­how long shall I remain on good terms with him?  I wonder.”

The next letter (June 14) recounts one of those solemn Battalion parades which I recollect so well—­those parades concerning which copious orders used to be issued the night before, and in preparation for which we were instructed in the formula which we (platoon commanders) had to employ when the Colonel, to the accompaniment of sweet sounds from the band, reached the edge of our platoons: 

“We had a Battalion parade in a large field this morning.  There was a long type-written programme of the ceremony to be gone through.  We paraded on the company parade ground at 8 a.m. and the Colonel arrived on the Battalion parade ground at 9 a.m.  He rode round the Battalion.  When he reached my platoon he called me up to him and asked me whether I had a roll of my platoon.  I replied that I had.  He asked me whether I had it on me; and I replied that I had, and produced it.  He seemed perfectly satisfied.  He also asked me one or two other questions; to all of which I was able to give a satisfactory answer.  And last night as I passed him in the road and saluted he smiled most affably and said ‘good evening.’  So he is quite agreeable with me so far.  I do not therefore yet join in the general condemnation of him.  As far as I can tell at present his chief faults appear to me to be:  that he suffers from a badly swelled head; that he fancies himself a budding Napoleon;