THE BISING IN ALEXANDEIA 31 that Arabi will be crushed as soon as it is ready to take the field.”

Other directions followed, but these were only amplifications of those mentioned.

“ What do you think, Annie ? ” Gregory said, when Ferguson had read to his staff that portion of the letter that concerned them. “ Shall we take the three months’ pay and remain here, or shall we go back to England ? ” “ What do you think yourself ? ” “ There are two lights in which to look at it, Annie: first, which would be best for us ? and secondly, which shall we like best ? Of course the first is the more difficult point to decide. You see. Partridge doesn’t say that we shall be kept on; he only says that he will do his best for us. I don’t think that there is any chance of his keeping us on at full pay. If he intended to do so, it would have been cheaper for him to give us our pay here, in which case he would save our passages back to England and out again. I think we could not reckon on getting anything like full pay while we were in England ; and you know I have lost faith in my literary powers. I think I have improved, but I certainly should not like, after our last experience, to trust to that for keeping us in England. The question is, what should I do here? There will be plenty of openings for men who cans speak the native language as labour overseers. The contractors for food for the army will want men of that sort, and as I know several of them, through my work in the port and being in Partridge’s house, I have no doubt I could get employment that way, and carry on very well till trade is open again, and obtain then a good deal better berth than they would offer me.

“Ho doubt one could get employment in the transport or commissariat of the army when it comes out. That will be a thing to think seriously of. My objections to that are perr sonal ones. In the first place, it would lead to nothing when the affair is over; in the second place, I should be certain to meet men I knew a|; Harrow or at the University, or since