'Thank God, Gregory! I have not cared about myself. But it has been a trial, when your manuscripts have come back, to see you sitting here slaving away; and to know that it is I who have brought you to this.'
' I brought myself to it, you obstinate girl! I have pleased myself, haven't I? If a man chooses a path for himself he must not grumble because he finds it rather rougher than he expected. I have never for a single moment regretted what I have done, at any rate as far as I myself am concerned.'
' Nor I, for my own sake, dear. The life of a governess is not so cheerful as to cause one regret at leaving it.'
And so Gregory Hartley and his wife went out to Alexandria, and established themselves in three bright rooms in the upper part of a house that commanded a view of the port and the sea beyond it. The outlay required for furniture was small indeed: some matting for the floors, a few cushions
for the divans which ran round the rooms, a bed, a few simple cooking utensils, and a small stock of crockery sufficed.
Mr. Ferguson, the manager of the branch, had at first read the letter that Gregory had brought him with some doubt in his mind as to the wisdom of his principal in sending out a man who was evidently a gentleman. This feeling, however, soon wore away, and he found him perfectly ready to undertake any work to which he was set.
There was, indeed, nothing absolutely unpleasant about this. He was at the office early, and saw that the native swept and dusted the offices. The rest of the day he was either in the warehouse, or carried messages, and generally did such odd jobs as were required. A fortnight after his arrival one of the clerks was kept away by a sharp attack of fever, and as work was pressing, the agent asked Gregory to take his place.
' I will do my best, sir, but I know nothing of mercantile accounts.'
' The work will be in no way difficult. Mr. Hardman will take Mr. Parrot's ledgers, and as you will only have to copy the storekeeper's issues into the books, five minutes will show you the form in which they are entered.'
Gregory gave such satisfaction that he was afterwards employed at office work whenever there was any pressure.
A year and a half passed comfortably; at the end of twelve months his pay was raised another ten shillings a week. He had, before leaving England, signed a contract to remain with the firm for two years. He regretted having to do this, as it prevented his accepting any better position should an opening occur; but he recognized that the condition was a fair one after the firm paying for his outfit and for two passages. At the end of eighteen months Gregory began to look about for something better.
'I don't mind my work a bit,' he said to his wife, 'but 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 ourselves, 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 certainly 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 company; 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 bloodshed, but you see it is complicated by the fact that Tewfik has the support of the English and French governments; and there can be little doubt that the populace regard the movement as a national one, and directed as much against foreign control and interference as against Tewfik, against whom they have
no ground of complaint whatever. On the part of the army and its generals, the trouble has arisen solely on account of the favouritism shown to Circassian officers.
' But once .a revolution has commenced it is certain to widen out. The peasantry are everywhere fanatically hostile to foreigners. Attacks have been made upon these in various country districts, and should Arabi be triumphant the position of Christians will become very precarious. Matters are evidently seen in that light in England, for I heard to-day at the office that the British and French squadrons are expected here in a day or two. If there should be a row, our position here will be very unpleasant. But I should hardly think that Arabi would venture to try his strength against that of the fleets, and I fancy that trouble will in the first place begin in Cairo, both as being the capital of the country and beyond the reach of armed interference by the powers. Arabi's natural course would be to consolidate his power throughout the whole of Egypt, leaving Alexandria severely alone until he had obtained absolute authority elsewhere.
'Anyhow it will be a satisfaction to have the fleet up, as at the first rumour of an outbreak I can get you and baby on board one of the ships lying in harbour. As a simple measure of precaution, I would suggest that you should go out with me this evening and buy one of the costumes worn by the native women; it is only a long blue robe enveloping you from head to foot, and one of those hideous white cotton veils falling from below the eyes. I will get a bottle of iodine, and you will then only have to darken your forehead and eyelids, and you could pass unsuspected through any crowd.'
'But what are you going to do, Gregory?'
' I will get a native dress too; but you must remember that though, if possible, I will come to you, I may not be able to do so; and in case you hear of any tumult going on, you must take baby and go down at once to the port. You know enough of the language now to be able to tell a boatman to take you off to one of the steamers in the port. As soon as
I get away I shall go round the port, and shall find you without difficulty. Still, I do not anticipate any trouble arising ith-out our having sufficient warning to allow me to come and see you settled on hoard ship, and I can then keep on in the office until it closes, when I can join you again. Of course, all this is very remote, and I trust that the occasion will never arise; still, there is no doubt that the situation is critical, and there is no harm in making our preparations for the worst.
' At any rate, dear, I beg that you will not go out alone till matters have settled down. We will do the shopping together when I come back from the office. There is one thing that I have reason to be grateful for. Even if the worst comes to the worst and all Christians have to leave the country, the object for which I came out here has been attained. I have not heard you cough for months, we have laid by fifty pounds, and I have written some forty stories, long and short, and if we go back I have a fair hope of making my way, for I am sure that I write better than I used to do; and as a good many of the stories are laid in Egypt the local colouring will give them a distinctive character, and they are more likely to be accepted than those I wrote before. Editors of magazines like a succession of tales of that kind.
'For the present there is no doubt that the arrival of the fleet will render our position here more comfortable than it is at present; the mere mob of the town would hesitate to attack Europeans when they know that three or four thousand sailors could land in half an hour. But on the other hand, Arabi and his generals might see that Alexandria was, after all, the most important position, and that it was here foreign interference must be arrested. I should not be surprised 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 oppose 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 anything like a regular row all commercial work will come to an end
