get on," the other said. "Of course, if they are
inventive geniuses they may discover something--an engine, for example,
that will do twice the work with half the consumption of fuel that any
other engine will do; or, if chemically inclined, they may discover
something that will revolutionize dyeing, for example: but not one man
in a thousand is a genius; and, as a rule, the man you are speaking
of--the ordinary public school and 'varsity man--if he has no interest,
and is not bent upon entering the army, even as a private, emigrates if
he hasn't sufficient income to live upon at home."

"Thank you! I had no idea it was so difficult to make a living in
England, or to obtain employment, for a well-educated man of two or
three and twenty."

"My dear Hilliard, that is the problem that is exercising the minds of
the whole of the middle class of England, with sons growing up. Of
course, men of business can take their sons into their own offices, and
train them to their own profession; but after all, if a man has four or
five sons, he cannot take them all into his office with a view to
partnership. He may take one, but the others have to make their own
way, somehow."

They chatted now upon the war, the dates upon which the various
regiments would go down, and the chance of the Khalifa collecting
another army, and trying conclusions with the invaders again. At last,
Gregory got up and went back to his hut. He could now understand why
his father, having quarrelled with his family, might have found himself
obliged to take the first post that was offered, however humble, in
order to obtain the advantage of a warm climate for his wife.

"He must have felt it awfully," he mused. "If he had been the sort of
man I had always thought him, he could have settled down to the life.
But now I know him better, I can understand that it must have been
terrible for him, and he would be glad to exchange it for the
interpretership, where he would have some chance of distinguishing
himself; or, at any rate, of taking part in exciting events.

"I will open that packet, but from what my mother said, I do not think
it will be of any interest to me, now. I fancy, by what she said, that
it contained simply my father's instructions as to what she was to do,
in the event of his death during the campaign. I don't see what else it
can be."

He drew the curtains he had rigged up, at the doorway and window, to
keep out insects; lighted his lantern; a