10 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN

if only for the sake of the boy ” (a son had been born a few months after their arrival), “ I must try to raise myself in

the scale a bit. I have nothing to complain about at the

office; far 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 our-

selves, 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 cer-

tainly keep on the look-out 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 com- pany ; 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 blood-