r from it. From what the
manager said to me the other day, if a vacancy occurred in the office,
I should have the offer of the berth. Of course, it would be a step;
for I know, from the books, that Hardman gets two hundred a year, which
is forty more than I do."

"I should like you to get something else, Gregory. It troubles me, to
think that half your time is spent packing up goods in the warehouse,
and work of that sort; and even if we got less I would much rather,
even if we had to stint ourselves, that your work was more suitable to
your past; and such that you could associate again with gentlemen, on
even terms."

"That does not trouble me, dear, except that I wish you had some
society among ladies. However, both for your sake and the boy's, and I
own I should like it myself, I will certainly keep on the lookout for
some better position. I have often regretted, now, that I did not go in
for a commission in the army. I did want to, but my father would not
hear of it. By this time, with luck, I might have got my company; and
though the pay would not have been more than I get here, it would, with
quarters and so on, have been as much, and we should be in a very
different social position.

"However, it is of no use talking about that now; and indeed, it is
difficult to make plans at all. Things are in such an unsettled
condition, here, that there is no saying what will happen.

"You see, Arabi and the military party are practically masters here.
Tewfik has been obliged to make concession after concession to them, to
dismiss ministers at their orders, and to submit to a series of
humiliations. At any moment, Arabi could dethrone him, as he has the
whole army at his back, and certainly the larger portion of the
population. The revolution could be completed without trouble or
bloodshed; but you see, it is complicated by the fact that Tewfik has
the support of the English and French governments; and there can be
little doubt that the populace regard the movement as a national one,
and directed as much against foreign control and interference as
against Tewfik, against whom they have no ground of complaint,
whatever. On the part of the army and its generals, the trouble has
arisen solely on account of the favouritism shown to Circassian
officers.

"But once a revolution has commenced, it is certain to widen out. The
peasantry are, everywhere, fanatically hostile to foreigners. Attacks
have been made upon these in var