banishment and the steamer were set at naught when, after he had left
Cairo, Ishak the Nubian returned, with his mutilated hand and his story.
Such is the tale as it is told in the bazaars. Ismail's motive in
murdering a man he liked (he was incapable of true affection for any
one) is found in the fact that he could place upon the shoulders of the
missing minister the worst of the financial irregularities which were
trying the patience of the European powers. It did him no good. He was
deposed the next year.

During the spring of 1890 Gezireh awoke to new life for a time. A French
company had purchased the place, with the intention of opening it as an
Egyptian Monte Carlo. But Khedive Tufik, who has prohibited gambling
throughout his domain, forbade the execution of this plan. So the
tarnished silks remain where they were, and the faded gilded ceilings
have not been renewed. When we made our last visit, during the heats of
early summer, the blossoms were as beautiful as ever, and the ghosts
were all there--we met them on the marble stairs: the European princes,
led by poor Eugenie; the sultanas, with their jewels and their band;
Ismail, with his drooping eyelids; and Sadyk, followed by the Nubian.

TUFIK

The present Khedive (or Viceroy) is thirty-eight years of age. Well
proportioned, with fine dark eyes, he may be called a handsome man; but
his face is made heavy by its expression of settled melancholy. It is
said in Cairo that he has never been known to laugh. But this must apply
to his public life only, for he is much attached to his family--to his
wife and his four children; in this respect he lives strictly in the
European manner, never having had but this one wife. He is a devoted
father. Determined that the education of his sons should not be
neglected as his own education was neglected by Ismail, he had for them,
at an early age, an accomplished English tutor. Later he sent them to
Geneva, Switzerland; they are now in Vienna. Tufik's chief interest, if
one may judge by his acts, is in education. In this direction his
strongest efforts have been made; he has improved the public schools of
Egypt, and established new ones; he has given all the support possible
to that greatest of modern innovations in a Mohammedan country, the
education of women. With all this, he is a devout Mohammedan; he is not
a fanatic; but he may be called, I think, a Mohammedan Puritan. He
receives his many European and American visitor