TIFLIS AND ITS INHABITANTS 67 



good service. That clanking sword, much too long 

 for its little wearer, is every day put to the blush by 

 the mightier pen of its overworked driver, a worthy 

 telegraph clerk. 



As for Kenneth, in a travel-worn tweed suit, nobody 

 but the officials to whom he had letters of intro- 

 duction believed him to be a soldier at all. A soldier 

 out of imiform — impossible ! And if Cecily and I had 

 only had the forethought before leaving England to 

 join that arrestingly-garbed corps of Ladies' Yeomanry, 

 we might have made a succes fou of ourselves, instead 

 of looking like a couple of brown wrens among a com- 

 pany of orioles. 



The army of the Caucasus is, like the population of 

 Tiflis, recruited from every nation. All's fish that 

 comes to the Russian military net, provided that 

 allegiance to the Tsar is sworn. The life stories of some 

 of these warriors would be worth hearing, but — they 

 are silent fellows, the world-spreading corps of the 

 Might-Have-Beens . 



In bygone times it was not accounted a high honour 

 to belong to the forces of the Caucasian Province, 

 which was used by the Russian military authority as a 

 Land of Forgotten Things to which unwanted officers 

 might be conveniently " stellenbosched." 



To-day sees a very different state of affairs, and 

 Caucasian billets are eagerly sought after ; for whilst 

 the private is not better paid than in other parts of 

 Russia, the officer receives considerably more. The 

 Army seems to be run, so far as an outsider can judge, 

 on the most admirable self-supporting lines, with 



