74 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

them to tender for the supply of the wines, repasts, waiters, linen, plate, and tents, he required for the fites he proposed giving at Ismailia. These tenders contained the usual statement that, though the Government did not pledge itself to accept the lowest tender, its intention was to give the contract to whichever of the competing purveyors offered the cheapest terms, and also furnished evidence of his power to execute the contract in a satisfactory manner. The circulars had hardly been issued before Ismail, according to current report, caused private information to be conveyed to the purveyors to whom these circulars had been forwarded, to the effect that the contract would, as a matter of fact, be given to the competitor who agreed to pay the Khedive himself the largest commission on his tender. Nobody realized more keenly than Ismail that, for all intents and purposes, the Egyptian Treasury and his own privy purse were one and the same thing — a sort of financial Peter and Paul.

Peter was thus to pay a higher price for the cost of the Ismailia //j in order that Paul might put a larger backsheish into his own pockets. Yet I have no doubt that Peter, as well as Paul, felt convinced that between them they had done a clever stroke of business. / Invitations to the opening were issued broadcast \ months beforehand. It was Ismail's purpose to collect < a notable gathering not only of crowned heads, but j of all the notabilities of the civilized world in science, ( art, literature, journalism, trade, finance, shipping,