ad told him, an altogether subordinate position in a mercantile house
in Alexandria. She had accounted for his knowledge of Arabic by the
fact that he had been, for two years, exploring the temples and tombs
of Egypt with a learned professor; but surely, as a man of good family,
he could have found something to do in England, instead of coming out
to take so humble a post in Egypt.

Gregory knew nothing of the difficulty that a young man in England has,
in obtaining an appointment of any kind, or of fighting his way single
handed. Influence went for much in Egypt, and it seemed to him that,
even if his father had quarrelled with his own people, there must have
been many ways open to him of maintaining himself honourably. Therefore
he had always thought that, although he might have been all that his
mother described him--the tenderest and most loving of husbands, a
gentleman, and estimable in all respects--his father must have been
wanting in energy and ambition, deficient in the qualities that would
fit him to fight his own battle, and content to gain a mere competence,
instead of struggling hard to make his way up the ladder. He had
accounted for his going up as interpreter, with Hicks Pasha, by the
fact that his work with the contractor was at an end, and that he saw
no other opening for himself.

He now understood how mistaken he had been, in his estimate of his
father's character; and wondered, even more than before, why he should
have taken that humble post at Alexandria. His mother had certainly
told him, again and again, that he had done so simply because the
doctors had said that she could not live in England; but surely, in all
the wide empire of England, there must be innumerable posts that a
gentleman could obtain. Perhaps he should understand it better, some
day. At present, it seemed unaccountable to him. He felt sure that, had
he lived, his father would have made a name for himself; and that it
was in that hope, and not of the pay that he would receive as an
interpreter, that he had gone up with Hicks; and that, had he not died
at that little village by the Nile, he would assuredly have done so,
for the narrative he had left behind him would in itself, if published,
have shown what stuff there was in him.

It was hard that fate should have snatched him away, just when it had
seemed that his trials were over, that he was on the point of being
reunited to his wife. Still, it was a consolation to know he ha