een a disaster, but he
says there is no confirmation whatever of these reports. He does not
deny, however, that they have caused anxiety among the authorities; for
sometimes these rumours, whose origin no one knows, do turn out to be
correct. He said that enquiries have been made, but no foundation for
the stories can be got at. I questioned him closely, and he says that
he can only account for them on the ground that, if a victory had been
won, an official account from government should have been here before
this; and that it is solely on this account that these rumours have got
about. He said there was no reason for supposing that this silence
meant disaster. A complete victory might have been won; and yet the
messenger with the despatches might have been captured, and killed, by
the parties of tribesmen hanging behind the army, or wandering about
the country between the army and Khartoum. Still, of course, this is
making us all very anxious."

The party soon broke up, none having any reassuring suggestions to
offer; and Annie returned to her lodging, to weep over her boy, and
pray for the safety of his father. Days and weeks passed, and still no
word came to Cairo. At Khartoum there was a ferment among the native
population. No secret was made of the fact that the tribesmen who came
and went all declared that Hicks Pasha's army was utterly destroyed. At
length, the Egyptian government announced to the wives of the officers
that pensions would be given to them, according to the rank of their
husbands. As captain and interpreter, Gregory's wife had but a small
one, but it was sufficient for her to live upon.

One by one, the other ladies gave up hope and returned to England, but
Annie stayed on. Misfortune might have befallen the army, but Gregory
might have escaped in disguise. She had, like the other ladies, put on
mourning for him; for had she declared her belief that he might still
be alive, she could not have applied for the pension, and this was
necessary for the child's sake. Of one thing she was determined. She
would not go with him, as beggars, to the father who had cast Gregory
off; until, as he had said, she received absolute news of his death.
She was not in want; but as her pension was a small one, and she felt
that it would be well for her to be employed, she asked Lady Hicks,
before she left, to mention at the houses of the Egyptian ladies to
whom she went to say goodbye, that Mrs. Hilliard would be gla