INTIMATE TALKS WITH TWO KHEDIVES he had succeeded to that uncomfortable seat. I thought of his trouble under foreign dictation. I thought of the plots and nearly successful rebellion of Arabi Pasha, of the revolution of the Mahdi, of the creditors who to-day are grinding Egypt between their upper and nether millstones, of the danger of assassination, and of the other perils that are ever present about the throne of an oriental monarch. Recalling all these things, I could appreciate why his mouth hardened and his eyes grew sad when he spoke thus to me.

The talk then turned upon the condition of Egypt and its future, but as to these matters Tewfik was reticent. He spoke proudly of the reforms which he had inaugurated in government and of the fact that now, though the taxes were heavy, every peasant knew just what he would have to pay and that the taxes were honestly collected. He spoke of the improvement of the courts and said that the pasha and the fellah were equal before the law. “ When I came to the throne,” said he, “the people were sur¬ prised that I put the prince on the same footing as other people. Now, there is no difference in justice. The prince and the peasant are the same in our courts, and the former may be punished like the latter.”

At this point, coffee and cigarettes were brought in by the servants of the palace. The coffee was a la Turque.

It was served in little china cups shaped like egg cups, in holders of gold filigree, each holding about three table¬ spoonfuls of rich black coffee as thick as chocolate and as sweet as molasses. There were neither saucers nor spoons. Trying to follow the Khedive’s example I gulped down half the contents of the cup at a swallow. It was as hot as liquid fire. I could feel the top of my mouth rising in 63