"I have often wondered what took place at that secret meeting between
Ismail and Tewfik, when we made the son Khedive and sent the father back
to Constantinople. Now I think I know."
The old man's emotion was cutting deep. Gordon could scarcely bear to
look at him.
"I wish you well, Gordon, and only hope these people may be more
grateful to you than they have been to me. God grant it!"
Gordon could not speak.
"I confess I have no faith in the proposed change. I think all such
concessions are so many sops to sedition. I also think that to have
raised the masses of a subject race from abject misery to well-being,
and then to allow them to fall back to their former condition, as they
surely will, and to become the victims of the worst elements among
themselves, is not only foolish but utterly wrong and wicked."
The old man rose, and in the intensity of his feelings, began to pace to
and fro.
"They talk about the despotism of the One-Man rule," he said. "What
about the despotism of their Parliaments, their Congresses, their
Reichstags--the worst despotisms in the world. Fools! Why can't they
see that the difference between the democracy of Europe and America, and
the government proper to the ancient, slavish, and slow-moving
civilisation of the East is fundamental?"