ar for me, for I have two watchmen in the
house every night--the regular guard and an amateur, a man whose boy I
took down to Cairo to study in Gama'l Azhar.

Palgrave has written to Ross wanting Mabrook back. I am very sorry, the
more so as Mabrook is recalcitrant. 'I want to stay with thee, I don't
want to go back to the Nazarene.' A boy who heard him said, 'but the
Lady is a Nazarene too;' whereupon Mabrook slapped his face with great
vigour. He will be troublesome if he does turn restive, and he is one
who can only be managed by kindness. He is as good and quiet as possible
with us, but the stubborn will is there and he is too ignorant to be
reasoned with.

_January_ 14.--To-day the four Copts have again changed their story, and
after swearing that the robbers were strangers, have accused a man who
has shot birds for me all this winter: and the poor devil is gone to
Keneh in chains. The weather seems to have set in steadily for fine. I
hope soon to get out, but my donkey has grown old and shaky and I am too
weak to walk, so I sit in the balcony.

January 14, 1867: Mrs. Austin

_To Mrs. Austin_.

LUXOR,
_January_ 14, 1867.

DEAREST MUTTER,

We have had a very cold winter and I have been constantly ailing, luckily
the cough has transferred itself from the night to the day, and I get
some good sleep. The last two days have been much warmer and I hope
matters will mend. I am beginning to take cod-liver oil, as we can't
find a milch camel anywhere.

My boat has been well let in Cairo and is expected here every day. The
gentlemen shoot, and tell the crew not to row, and in short take it easy,
and give them 2 pounds in every place. Imagine what luxury for my crew.
I shall have to dismiss the lot, they will be so spoilt. The English
Consul-General came up in a steamer with Dr. Patterson and Mr. Francis.
I dined with them one day; I wish you could have seen me carried in my
armchair high up on the shoulders of four men, like a successful
candidate, or more like one of the Pharaohs in an ancient bas-relief,
preceded by torch bearers and other attendants and followers, my
procession was quite regal. I wish I could show you a new friend of
mine, Osman Ibraheem, who studied medicine five years in Paris. My heart
warmed to him directly, because like mos