TIFLIS. 229 



and hand them one of the five-rouble notes back. 

 In return for this they hand me a three-rouble note 

 and two singles, leaving the error as bad as ever. 

 Again I feel impelled by conscience to interfere in 

 their interests ; and apparently much against the 

 grain get them at last to pay me only what they 

 owe, or rather two copecks less, for try as I would 

 nothing could induce them to be absolutely 

 accurate. 



Glad to get my pass at last, I leave the office, 

 meekly wondering what a pass to Lenkoran really 

 costs, and whether it would not be cheaper in the 

 end for Russia to have better- educated employes in 

 Government offices, even if she had to pay them a 

 trifle more. I took the trouble to jot down this 

 incident exactly as it happened at the time, be- 

 cause I thought I might be accused of overcolouring 

 my picture of Russian official imbecility. 



Hugging my pass to me as the emblem of free- 

 dom from an enforced stay in a city I was already 

 beginning to detest, I drove round to my different 

 friends to say adieu, and to make my last prepara- 

 tions for a start, noticing as I drove the extraordi- 

 narily high-sounding names with which the Rus- 

 sians of Tiflis dignify their drinking dens. Two 

 of the lowest order, standing side by side, were 

 ' The Rose of Paradise ' and ' The New World.' 

 In bidding adieu to one of my friends the con- 

 versation turned on Professor Bryce's book, he 



