What Happened in Egypt. By C. N. and A. IL
Williamson. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—Mr. and Mrs. Williamson may assert that the astonishing events narrated in their book happened in Egypt, but a considerable strain is placed on the credulity of the reader. The difficulty becomes acute when we are asked to believe that the hero, a young English officer, walked about Cairo, where he must have had hundreds of friends, in the disguise of a native, undetected, and, still more, that he hired himself out to a party of tourists as a sort of dragoman. However, nothing can quite destroy the charm of an account of Egyptian travel, especially when given by the practised pens of these authors. Parties of people going up the Nile would do well to provide themselves with a copy of the volume. We may leave it to the consciences of Mr. and Mrs. Williamson as to whether it is fair or in good taste to put portraits of living people into a work of fiction. The present Sirdar and his wife are certainly public characters, ha it seems a little hard upon the Sirdar that his conversation and conduct in a delicate situation should be invented for him. It is a comfort to the readers that the authors' method of locomotion is changed from a motor-oar to a steam dahabiyeb and a train.
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