258 THR UGH R US SI A ON A MUS TA NG. 



to cut out the captain in the esteem of the light-haired 

 lady, but failed. This officer looked a general, at least, 

 and when talking you felt certain that he was discus- 

 sing the movements of monster armies and the manner 

 of conducting big campaigns. Since the pale-haired 

 lady refused to give up the captain and the speaking- 

 tube on his account, however, it is safe to say that he 

 was nothing but a senior lieutenant and gave utterance 

 to nothing in particular. 



There was an Armenian lady, with three children and 

 three nurses, who took as much trouble looking after 

 the lot as if they were all children and all in her charge. 



There were merchants who talked rubles and ko- 

 pecks all day long, and a couple of seedy-looking 

 popes or priests — gentlemen of the cloth. 



The martial element of the company was increased 

 at one of the stations by a very much booted, spurred, 

 sworded and whiskered Cossack officer, who spoke to 

 nobody and smoked cigarettes without a break for an 

 hour at a stretch. He looked the very incarnation of 

 war. Higher up the river, on a bank that did service as a 

 landing-place, was seen, as the steamer turned her nose 

 to the shore, another officer who seemed to be a coun- 

 terpart of our fellow-passenger. He, too, looked an 

 understudy of Mars. Surely the captain was never 

 going to commit the folly of bringing together these 

 two martial atoms ? Nothing less than a duel could be 

 expected from a contact between these two. Come to- 

 gether, however, they did, on the bank, in sight of all. 

 And the catastrophe that we witnessed was such as 

 happens when a couple of school-girls meet after vaca- 

 tion. Like a pair of amiable misses these whiskered 



