On the 19th of July we lunched with Lord Houghton, and little thought we should not see him again. On the 11th of August we had the misfortune to lose him. Richard paid several visits to Oxford, but returned in time for Lord Houghton's funeral service at St. Margaret's, Westminster Abbey, on the 18th of August, and his sorrow for this good friend occupies a whole page of his journal. We also had the pleasure of seeing an old friend, Sir Edwin Arnold, one of the most delightful of Eastern poets, who gave me his "Light of Asia." Carlo Pellegrini came several times to lunch with us, in reality wishing to caricature Richard in _Vanity Fair_, which he did--but it was one of his few great failures. The first volume of the "Arabian Nights" came out on the 12th of September, 1885, and the sixteenth volume, the last of the supplementals, on the 13th of November, 1888; thus in a period of three years we had produced twenty-two volumes--the ten originals, the six supplementals, and my six volumes, _i.e._ so-called mine. We paid several visits to Richard's sister and niece, Lady and Miss Stisted, at Norwood, and we went to Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot at Upper House, Guildford, where we met some very pleasant people; then we went to Wardour, to Lord Arundell's. About this time Mr. H. H. Johnson, Artist, Consul, African traveller, and universal favourite with everybody, was occupying his beautiful little flat in Victoria Street, and gave us some pleasant teas. We brought out our little translation from the Brazilian of "Iraçema" and "Manoel de Moraes, the Convert," at our own expense. The _Punch_ and _Vanity Fair_ caricatures came out on the 22nd, Thursday. [Sidenote: _Richard's Programme for Egypt_.] On the 28th of October we went down to Hatfield, where there was a large party in the house. On this occasion Lord Salisbury wanted privately to know what Richard's programme would be for Egypt, and he wrote out the following for him:-- "First and far away, annex Egypt and all its territory entirely; but if the Government does not decide on this bold stroke, at least have no half-measures. "Secondly, if not annexation, recall Ismail, ex-Khedive, Arábi Pasha, and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, and, if _they take an oath of allegiance_ to your Government, make Ismail your English Viceroy, with a guard of honour only. Send Arábi as the Governor of Sudan, and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt to Darfur. "Oblige the Sudanese to give up their arms, and abolish the useless expense of the Egyptian Army and Navy. "Garrison with English troops Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Ismailíyyeh, Port Said, Suákin, Masáwwah, one fortress at Perim, one at Rossier (the point between Suez and Akabah), and one fortress on the Akabah side. "Put the bulk of the army (say five thousand men) in Khartum. Make Valentine Baker Military Governor of Khartum (it should, of course, have been Gordon, if he had not unfortunately been killed last January).