322 WITH KITCHENEK IN THE SOUDAN other. You left school before I began it, and you left Oxford two years before I went up to Cambridge. You have never been at home much since, and I was two years in Egypt, and have now been about the same time here. I charge my wife to send you this, and I trust that for my sake you will help her.

/She does not think of returning to England. Life is not expensive in this country; even an allowance of a hundred a year would enable her to remain here. If you can afford double that, do so for my sake ; but at any rate I feel that 1 can rely upon you to do at least that much when you come into the title. Had I lived I should never have troubled anyone at home, but as I shall be no longer able to earn a living for her and the hoy, I trust that you will not think it out of the way for me to ask for what would have been a very small younger brother's allowance had I remained at home.

The letter to his sisters was in a different strain: My dear Flossie and Janet, I am quite sure that you, like myself, felt deeply grieved over our separation, and I can guess that you will have done what you could with our father to bring about a reconciliation. When you receive this, dears, I shall have gone. Jam about to start on an expedition that is certain to be dangerous, and which may be fatal, and I have left this with my wife to send you if she has sure news of my death. I have had hard times. I see my way now, and 1 hope that I shall ere long receive a good official appointment out here.

Still, it is as well to prepare for the worst ; and if you receive this letter the worst has come. As 1 have only just begun to rise again in the world, 1 have been able to make no provision for my wife. I know that you liked her, and that you would by no means have disapproved of the step I took. If our father has not come into the title when you receive this, your pocket-money will be only sufficient for your own wants; therefore 1 am not asking for help in that way, but only that you will write to her an affectionate letter. She is without friends,