At Aboukir and Acre | Page 5

exercise
whatever. Her general health was greatly impaired, and the two Italian
doctors who attended her--there being no English medical men resident
there--had most strongly advised that she should return home. They had
frankly told Mr. Blagrove that a colder climate was absolutely
necessary to her, not only because it would brace her up and act as a
tonic, but because she would probably there be induced to take a certain
amount of exercise. The two girls were to accompany her, in order that
they should, like Edgar, enjoy the advantage of going to an English
school and mixing with English girls of their own age. They, too, had
both felt the heat during the preceding summer, and Mr. Blagrove felt
that a stay of two or three years in England would be an immense
advantage to them.
Mrs. Blagrove was to stay with her father, a clergyman in the west of
England, for a few months, when her husband intended himself to go
over for a time. The war had much reduced business, the activity of the
French privateers rendered communication irregular and precarious, the

rates both for freight and insurance were very high, the number of
vessels entering the port were but a tithe of those that frequented it
before the outbreak of the war, and as no small part of Mr. Blagrove's
business consisted in supplying vessels with such stores as they needed,
his operations were so restricted that he felt he could, without any great
loss, leave the management of his affairs in the hands of his chief
assistant, a German, who had been with him for twenty years, and in
whom he placed the greatest reliance.
Edgar would be there to assist generally, and his father thought that it
would even benefit him to be placed for a time in a responsible position.
It was, of course, a great disappointment to Edgar to find that his
mother and the girls were on the point of returning. Their departure,
indeed, had been decided upon somewhat suddenly owing to a
strongly-armed English privateer, commanded by an old acquaintance
of Mr. Blagrove, coming into port. She had been cruising for some time,
and had sent home a number of prizes, and was now returning herself
to England for another refit and to fill up her crew again. As she was a
very fast vessel, and the captain said that he intended to make straight
home and to avoid all doubtful sail, Mr. Blagrove at once accepted the
offer he made to take his wife and daughters back to England,
immediately he heard that his friend was looking for a passage for them.
Accordingly for the next week there was much packing and confusion.
At the end of that time the three ladies, after a tearful adieu, sailed for
England, and things settled down again.
Edgar felt the absence of his sisters keenly. There were but a handful of
English traders in the city, and none of these had boys who were near
enough to his own age to be companions. However, it had the effect of
enabling him, without interruption, to settle down steadily to work with
his father, and to make himself acquainted with the details of the
business. This he did so industriously that Mr. Blagrove said more than
once: "You are getting on so well, Edgar, that I shall be able to go
home for my holiday with the comfortable conviction that in yours and
Muller's hands matters will go on very well here, especially as business
is so slack."

It was about three months after his return that Edgar had an opportunity
of finding the advantage of his skill in boxing. He had, on the day after
he came back, had a sack of sawdust hung up in his room, and every
morning he used to pummel this for half an hour before taking his bath,
and again before going to bed, so that he kept his muscles in a state of
training. Moreover, this exercise had the advantage that it enabled him
to stand the heat of the climate much better than he would otherwise
have done, and to save him from any of that feeling of lassitude and
depression so usual among Englishmen working in hot climates. He
was returning one day from a ride; dusk had fallen, and when just
beyond the limits of the town he heard shouts and cries, and saw a
scuffle going on in the road. Cantering on, he leapt from his horse,
dropped the reins on its neck, and ran forward.
Two of the lowest class Maltese or Greeks were dragging a young Arab
along, holding his hands to prevent him getting at his knife, and beating
him about the head with their disengaged hands. It was evident