‘Pray, Sir Joseph,’ he said after a moment, ‘who is this Dr Maturin?’

‘He is the gentleman about whom I sent your Lordship a minute last week,’ said Sir Joseph. ‘A minute in a yellow cover,’ added with a very slight emphasis — an emphasis that would been the equivalent of flinging his ink-well at the First Lord’s head in Melville’s time. 

HMS Surprise – Patrick O’Brian