Flashman's thoughts on a kidnapped wife

I’d be the laughing-stock of the country – Flashy, the man whose wife was pinched by a half-breed millionaire . . . ‘Close friend of the family, too . . . well, they say she was pinched, but who knows? . . . probably tired of old Flash, what? – felt like some Oriental mutton for a change, ha-ha.'

Flashman's Lady, pp.116-17, Pan edition, 1979.