By this time, with luck, I might have got my company; and though the pay would not have been more than I get here, it would, with quarters and so on, have been as much, and we should be in a very different social position.
"However, it is of no use talking about that now; and indeed, it is difficult to make plans at all.

Things are in such an unsettled condition, here, that there is no saying what will happen.
"You see, Arabi and the military party are practically masters here.
Tewfik has been obliged to make concession after concession to them, to dismiss ministers at their orders, and to submit to a series of humiliations.

At any moment, Arabi could dethrone him, as he has the whole army at his back, and certainly the larger portion of the population.

The revolution could be completed without trouble or bloodshed; but you see, it is complicated by the fact that Tewfik has the support of the English and French governments; and there can be little doubt that the populace regard the movement as a national one, and directed as much against foreign control and interference as against Tewfik, against whom they have no ground of complaint, whatever.

On the part of the army and its generals, the trouble has arisen solely on account of the favouritism shown to Circassian officers.
"But once a revolution has commenced, it is certain to widen out.