WOMEN CLERKS. 53 



way to receive a bustling anxious Englishman, 

 who has lost his portmanteau ? I think not. 

 At last I got my telegram sent off, and then 

 in sheer gratitude, submitted quietly to a long 

 harangue on the illiberal nature of the British 

 mind, which refuses to admit women to a 

 variety of employments for any and all of 

 which they are better fitted than men. As 

 if to try me to the uttermost she finished by 

 quoting the success of the experiment of the 

 admission of women clerks to employment 

 as telegraphists in Russia and elsewhere. 

 When I left her, if I did not feel sure that 

 women were fit for any office, my doubts 

 were not owing to their fatal want of as- 

 surance. 



On returning to my hotel, after telegraph- 

 ing for my stray luggage, I received news of 

 the first of the many strokes of bad luck with 

 which I was to meet in my pursuit of moun- 

 tain sheep. The Prince of Mingrelia, so his 



