DISINHERITED 13

foreign interference must be arrested. I should not be sur- prised 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 op- pose 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 any- thing 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 dan-

ger of trouble from them ; but the cry of death to the Chris-

tians would excite every Mahomedan in the land almost to

madness. Unfortunately, too, there is a general belief,

whether truly founded or not, that although the French

representative here is apparently acting in concert with ours,

he and all the French officials are secretly encouraging Arabi,

and will take no active steps whatever. In that case it is

doubtful whether England would act alone. The jealousy

between the two peoples here is intense. For years the

French have been thwarting us at every turn; and they may

very well think that, however matters might finally go, our

interference would make us so unpopular in Egypt that their

influence would become completely paramount.