"  Then  to  Hammersmith,  where  I  found  my  poor  old
Morris  looking  very  ill  and  aged,  toddling  feebly  in  front
of  his  house.  We  went  in  together,  and  he  brightened  up,
and  told  me  of  his  maladies  in  a  cheerful  not  too  despond-
ing way,  and  I  stayed  on  an  hour  or  more  and  had  tea  with
him.  My  new  tapestry,  the  Botticelli,  is  finished,  and  I  am
to  go  with  Mrs.  Morris  on  Saturday  to  see  it  in  Oxford
Street.  Morris  showed  me  the  title-page  of  his  Chaucer,
which  is  about  the  finest  thing  he  has  done,  the  whole  has
been  subscribed  for,  a  matter  of  some  ^9,000.
"  Gill,  whom  I  saw  in  Mount  Street,  repeated  to  me  more
of  what  Cromer  had  told  him  about  the  Soudan.  He  asked
Cromer  whether  he  should  be  in  favour  of  an  advance  to
re-occupy  the  lost  provinces.  In  reply  to  this  Cromer  had
told  him  that  some  time  or  other  the  Soudan  would  have
to  be  reconquered  from  the  Khalifa,  but  the  question  was
by  whom.  As  for  imposing  such  a  task  on  Egypt  he  was
most  emphatic.  '  I  should  never  think,'  he  said, '  of  propos-
ing that  the  poor  fellahin  in  their  blue  shirts  should  be
charged  with  it.'  This,  it  is  as  well  to  remember,  was  as  late
as  the  beginning  of  March,  and  within  a  week  of  the  ex-
pedition being  ordered  from  England.
