6o CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



modern "colour-book," done in the three, four, or five 

 colour process — or was it ply ? I forget — reproduces 

 scenery to much greater advantage than scenery 

 produces itself. Speaking personally, he far preferred 

 the colour-book. 



The feminine element consisted of some light- 

 hearted Greeks, an Armenian or two, and a stolid 

 German Frau, who had come out from the Father- 

 land to be married, en seconde noces. The husband- 

 elect was a good Swabian in " the " Colony of Tiflis, 

 so benevolent, as Douglas Jerrold said, " he would 

 have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower," and 

 so eminently thriving as to give no encouragement 

 to the doubts and qualms which assailed his ladye, 

 who was by now not at all sure that she had selected 

 a mate really worthy of her. She was quite certain that 

 her lofty character, keen intelligence, knowledge of 

 housewifery, and all-round capabilities entitled her 

 to " the pick of the husbands of the world." 



Not other people's, of course. I suppose she meant 

 the husband genus. 



For a person supplied with such an unusual store 

 of common sense, her grip on one of the greatest 

 truths in a woman's life was very slack. She didn't 

 seem to realize one bit that the widow who marries 

 a second time does not deserve to be one. 



Tiflis is a trio of three distinct towns. The Russian, 

 lying on the south-west bank of the Kura, where the 

 fashionable world, the great officials, and the Armenian 

 money-lenders live, where also you find the best hotels, 

 fine shops, and electrically-lighted and tree-planted 



