r father's engagement to what he called a penniless
governess. It was only what was to be expected. If he had stated his
objections to the marriage calmly, there need have been no quarrel.
Your father would assuredly have married me, in any case; and your
grandfather might have refused to assist him, if he did so, but there
need have been no breakup in the family, such as took place.

"However, as it was, your father resented his tone, and what had been
merely a difference of opinion became a serious quarrel, and they never
saw each other, afterwards. It was a great grief to me, and it was
owing to that, and his being unable to earn his living in England, that
your father brought me out here. I believe he would have done well at
home, though it would have been a hard struggle. At that time I was
very delicate, and was ordered by the doctors to go to a warm climate,
and therefore your father accepted a position of a kind which, at
least, enabled us to live, and obtained for me the benefit of a warm
climate.

"Then the chance came of his going up to the Soudan, and there was a
certainty that, if the expedition succeeded, as everyone believed it
would, he would have obtained permanent rank in the Egyptian army, and
so recovered the position in life that he had voluntarily given up, for
my sake."

"And what was the illness you had, Mother?"

"It was an affection of the lungs, dear. It was a constant cough, that
threatened to turn to consumption, which is one of the most fatal
diseases we have in England."

"But it hasn't cured you, Mother, for I often hear you coughing, at
night."

"Yes, my cough has been a little troublesome of late, Gregory."

Indeed, from the time of the disaster to the expedition of Hicks Pasha,
Annie Hilliard had lost ground. She herself was conscious of it; but,
except for the sake of the boy, she had not troubled over it. She had
not altogether given up hope, but the hope grew fainter and fainter, as
the years went on. Had it not been for the promise to her husband, not
to mention his real name or to make any application to his father
unless absolutely assured of his death, she would, for Gregory's sake,
have written to Mr. Hartley, and asked for help that would have enabled
her to take the boy home to England, and have him properly educated
there. But she had an implicit faith in the binding of a promise so
made, and as long as she was not driven, by absolute want, to apply to
Mr. Hartley,