With grateful thanks, Gregory returned home.
[Chapter 4]: An Appointment.
Soon after ten, next morning, Gregory took up his place near the entrance to Lord Cromer's house. It was just eleven when Mr. Murray came down.
"Come in with me," he said. "Lord Cromer will see you. He acknowledged at once, when I told him your story, that you had a strong claim for employment. The only point was as to your age. I told him that you were past sixteen, and a strong, active fellow, and that you had had a good physical training."
They had now entered the house.
"Don't be nervous, Hilliard; just talk to him as you would to me. Many a good man has lost an appointment, from being nervous and embarrassed when he applied for it."
"You want to go up to the Soudan?" Lord Cromer said. "Mr. Murray has told me your reasons for wanting to go. Though I fear it is hardly likely that any new light can be thrown upon the fate of Hicks Pasha, and his officers, I feel that it is a natural desire on your part."
"It was my mother's last wish, sir, and she took particular pains in my training, and education, to fit me for the work."
"You speak Arabic, and the tongue of the Negro blacks, almost as well as English?"
"Yes, sir. Arabic quite as well, and the other nearly as well, I think."