here is one thing that I have reason to be grateful for. Even if the
worst comes to the worst, and all Christians have to leave the country,
the object for which I came out here has been attained. I have not
heard you cough, for months; we have laid by fifty pounds; and I have
written some forty stories, long and short, and if we go back I have a
fair hope of making my way, for I am sure that I write better than I
used to do; and as a good many of the stories are laid in Egypt, the
local colouring will give them a distinctive character, and they are
more likely to be accepted than those I wrote before. Editors of
magazines like a succession of tales of that kind.

"For the present, there is no doubt that the arrival of the fleet will
render our position here more comfortable than it is, at present. The
mere mob of the town would hesitate to attack Europeans, when they know
that three or four thousand sailors could land in half an hour. But on
the other hand, Arabi and his generals might see that Alexandria was,
after all, the most important position, and that it was here foreign
interference must be arrested.

"I should not be surprised if, on the arrival of the ships, Tewfik,
Arabi, and all the leaders of the movement come here at once. Tewfik
will come to get the support of the fleet. Arabi will come to oppose a
landing of troops. The war in the beginning of the century was decided
at Alexandria, and it may be so, again. If I were sure that you would
come to no harm, and I think the chances of that are very small, I own
that all this would be immensely interesting, and a break to the
monotony of one's life here.

"One thing is fairly certain. If there is anything like a regular row,
all commercial work will come to an end until matters are settled; in
which case, even if the offices are not altogether closed, and the
whole staff recalled to England, they would be glad enough to allow me
to leave, instead of keeping me to the two years' agreement that I
signed, before starting."

"I should hardly think that there would be a tumult here, Gregory. The
natives all seem very gentle and peaceable, and the army is composed of
the same sort of men."

"They have been kept down for centuries, Annie; but there is a deep,
fanatical feeling in every Mussulman's nature; and, at any rate, the
great proportion of the officers of the army are Mussulmans. As for the
Kopts, there would be no danger of trouble from them; but the cry