Good-bye, dear Alick, no, that is improper: I must say 'O my Lord' or
'Abou Maurice.'



March 7, 1863: Mrs. Austin


_To Mrs. Austin_.
A FEW MILES BELOW GIRGEH,
_March_ 7, 1863.

Dearest Mutter,

I was so glad to find from your letter (which Janet sent me to Thebes by
a steamer) that mine from Siout had reached you safely. First and
foremost I am wonderfully better. In Cairo the winter has been terribly
cold and damp, as the Coptic priest told me yesterday at Girgeh. So I
don't repent the expense of the boat for _j'en ai pour mon argent_--I am
_all_ the money better and really think of getting well. Now that I know
the ways of this country a little, which Herodotus truly says is like no
other, I see that I might have gone and lived at Thebes or at Keneh or
Assouan on next to nothing, but then how could I know it? The English
have raised a mirage of false wants and extravagance which the servants
of the country of course, some from interest and others from mere
ignorance, do their best to keep up. As soon as I had succeeded in
really persuading Omar that I was not as rich as a Pasha and had no wish
to be thought so, he immediately turned over a new leaf as to what must
be had and said 'Oh, if I could have thought an English lady would have
eaten and lived and done the least like Arab people, I might have hired a