ROG

the front with our ambulances as soon as we can get permission to do so. We understand that the Russian wounded are suffering terribly, and getting no doctors, nurses, or field ambulances.

, not fashionable, but with a nice air about it, and some solid comforts. We left on Wednesday, the 20th, at 7 a.m. This was something of a feat, as we have twent

ive way. Why should the companionship of the open road be the supreme test of friendship? and why should one feel a certain fear of getting to know people too well on a journey? The last friends I travelled with we

CKH

h costs ￡3 per night, and I have a small room on the fourth floor, which costs 17s. 6d. without a bath. There is rather a nice court in the middle of the house, with flowers and a band and tables for dinner, but the sight of everyo

side of life that seems to me as beastly as anything I know. Fortunately, the luxury of an hotel is minimised by the fact that there are no "necessaries,"

just finished reading my "Diary of the War," and was very nice about it. The children, who came in to tea, were the prettiest little creatures I have ever seen, with curly hair, and faces like the water-colour pictures of a hundre

e House is charmingly situated on the Lake, with lovely trees all

now I suppose one wrong move may lead to an outbreak of hostilities, and the recent German victories may yet bring in other countries on her side. Bulgaria has been a glaring instance of siding with the one she considers the winning side (Gott strafe her!), and Greece is still wondering wha

n had chicken-pox! So I came home and packed, and then lunched with Mr. Eric Hambro, Mr. Lancelot Smith, and Mr. --, a

el. We had a long journey to Haparanda, where we stopped for a day. The cold was terrible and we spent the day (my birthday) on a sort of luggage barge on

host returned to earth. All the old lot were there as of yore-Viola Tree, Lady Diana Manners, Harry Lindsay, the Raymond Asquiths, etc., etc. I saw them all from quite far away. Lord Stanmore was in the box with us, and he it was who told me of Elsie Northcote's sudd

AND

n by death. It comes once and remains always. It is never fulfilled; the fulfilment of love is its crucifixion; but it lives on for ever in a passion-we

into rather comfortable, very expensive rooms. My little box of a place costs twenty-six shillings a night. We lunched with two Russian officers and Mr. Ian Malcolm, and th

ly there is "a right spirit renewed" in every one of us. We want to be one in the great sacrifice which war involves, and we offer and present

duty is to give to the Queen's Fund as becom

confidence. They claim almost occult powers in the matter of "organisation," and they generally require pity for being overworked. For a time their names are in great circulation, and afterwards one doesn't hear very much about them. Florence Nightingale would have had no distinction nowadays. It is doubtful if she would ha

ut something gets into my throat,

LL UND

t was raked by fire. When I had finished, a friend of mine, evidently waiting for the end of a pointless story, said,

all, the Voice comes

a plain dark blue cloth dress and a funny little blue silk cap, and one splendid string of pearls. At the front she does very fine work, and we off

lish prisoners of war in Germany. These, of course, are quite simple, and pass the Censor in England, but, once on the other side, they go straight to Government officia

hook his head, and signified by actions that he was unable to speak owing to his damaged jaw. The doctor shoved him into a dug-out, and said kindly, "Just let m

t a party of soldiers, then the spies, after them the burying-party,

sort of fellow-and when the first shell came over, he leapt from his horse and lay on the ground shrieking with fear, and with every shell that came ove

S C

rickiness of her trial, the refusal to let facts be known, and then the cold-blood

panish Legations that she had been condemned and was to be shot at once, and they instantly rang up on the telephone to know if this was true. They were informed by the Military Court which had tried a

She said she was happy to die for her country. They led her out into the prison yard to stand before a firing-part

and shop as they do in Oxford Street, and it has a few cathedrals and churches, which are not very wonderful. The roadways are a mass of slush and are seldom swept; and there are tramways, alwa

. The H?tel Astoria is a would-be fashionable place, and there is a queer crowd of people listening to the band and

hade of Heliogabalus! If the human tummy must indeed be distended four times in twenty-four hours, need it be done so solemnly, and with such a pig-like love of the trough? If they would even eat what there is with joy one wouldn't mind, but the talk about food, the once-enjoyed food, the favourite food, is really too tiresome. "Where to dine" becomes a sort of test of true worth

ARD

on a postcard: "Never! I decline to sit in a hot r

oms and eating dead animals, and then

e so sleepy in the evenings that I dislike dining out. I sway with sleep even when people are talking to me. It was a middle-cl

ger of their neighbours' faces, for so fervid were their gesticulations that their hands flew in every direction! They shoved with their elbows to get near

cile a Father's personal care for His poor little sparrows and His in

selves, and lead up to God. It should not require teaching, or priests, or even prayer. Humanity is big enough for this. It should shake off cords and chains and old Bible stories of carna

ldren, and our highest endeavour is (school-boy-like) to resemble our fellows as nearly as possible. The result is stagnation, crippled forms, wasted energy, people waiting for years by some healing pool and longing for someone to dip them in. All the release t

he Maxwells. I think he is one of the "exiles" whom one meets all the world over, one of those who don't transplant well. I am one myself! And Mr. Lombard and I nearly wept when we

eet is about the length of a good big ship, yet we don't feel we have lived till we g

as told before I joined it that it had been

ITY"

Charity" and war should be separate. It is absurd that the Belgians in England should be housed and fed by a Government grant, and our own soldiers are dependent on private charity for the very socks they wear and the cigare

, and I should not be out here waiting for work. We ought to be sent where we are needed, and so ought

at brings me nearer to my return. I had hardly realised to-day was the 7th, but I am

crowds in. There is no division of the sexes, babies are yelling, and families are sleeping on wooden boards. The places are heated but not aired, and the smell is horrid; but they seem to revel in "frows

et Johnnie Parsons, who is Naval Attaché to Admiral Phillimore, and we had a long chat. When one i

and a game of bridge. Some Americans, called de Velter, were there. I

NS OF

try to believe all the good I hear, and when even children or fools tell me the war will soon be over, I want to embrace them-I don't care whether they are talking nonsense or not. Sometim

that is sitting in an hotel bedroom and nursing a cold in my head. Lately I have been learning Russian-and now I am sniffing.

web is made, with the inside teased out like flannelette, and this is all they have. The necessaries of life are being "cornered" right and left, mostly by the commercial houses an

efugees as being most wretched. They are camping in the

e of glass between us and the peasants of Poland; one pane of glass dividing us from poverty, and keepin

train going to Dvinsk

Petrograd climate. Nearly everyone feels it. I had a little book in my head which I thought I c

Germany takes, the more the British rub their hands an

roplane began to wheel round and round like a leaf, when it was found that the machine was on fire. One of the airmen had been shot and the other burnt to death. The Russians refused to come and look at the remains even of t

LG

y impossible, and the situation may be strained). He said also that Motono, the Japanese Ambassador, is far the finest politician here; and he told me that while Russia ought to have been protecting the road to Constantinople she was quarrelling about what its new name was to be, and had decided to call it "Czareska

en in to dinner by Mr. George Lloyd, who was full of

o. No one ever seems at their best in Petrograd. It is a cross place and a common place. I never unde

a meal, but something fresh must be ordered. The prices are quite silly, and, oddly enough, people seem to r

of food, pencils entries in his pocket-book, and stimulates jaded appetites by signalling the "voiture aux hors d'?uvres" to approach. The rooms are far to

eminded of the fact that the only authentic picture we have of

GNA

ut Mrs. Wynne's cars, although she is offering a gift worth some thousands of pounds. I go to Lady Georgina's work-party on Mondays and meet the English colony, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays I distribute soup; but it is an unsatisfactory business, and the days go by and one gets nothing done. One isn't eve

wasted, à la Watts' hymn, in slumber. If it was possible one would organise one's time a bit, but hotel life is the very mischief for that sort of thing. There are no facilities fo

and a testy parson once remarked, "The Lord always calls you at very convenient times

nting wolves. Her son has been dead for some months, and she says she hasn't had time to bury him yet! One assumes he is embalmed! Yet I can't help saying they

hetic little programmes for ourselves. To-day I shall lunch with Mr. Cunard, and see the lace he has

ans. I always "keep the Sabbath," and it is all the rest I want. Even here I might write and get on with something, but there is something paralysing about the place, and my brain won't work. I

s the English plan is, but each man is carried in turn to the "salle des pansements," and is laid on an operating-table and has his fresh dressings put on, and is then carried back to bed again. It is a good plan, I th

NG ONE'

speak firmly. It isn't all "being pleasant." One girl has been consistently rude to me. To-day, poor soul, I gave her a second sermon on our way back from church; but, indeed she has numerous opportunities in this war, and she is wasting them all on gossip, and

we native to their

ld we live in, fairest

s and tumults, hate an

ng Paris, in that sp

king heavenward on a

s and murmur, 'Would to

hear of soldiers going out of the trenches with a laugh and a joke to cut wire entanglements, knowing they will not come back, then I am ashamed of

weeks of black weather and skies heavy with snow, and although the cold was intense the sun was shining. I got into one of the horrid

nd domes which I hadn't seen before. I stamped my feet on the shaky little carriage and begged the izvoztchik to drive a little quicker. We had to be at the Finnish station at 10 a.m., and my horse, with a long tail

L

pes, and as we waited we heard that the train was coming in. It came slowly and carefully alongside the platform with its crunching snow, almost with the creeping movement of a woman who carries something tenderly. Then it stopped. Its windows were frozen and dark, so that one could see nothing. I heard a voice behind me say, "The blind are coming first," and from the train there came gropin

less men, too sorely hurt to stand once more under raining bullets and hurtling shell-fire-so back they came,

lay twisted sideways. Some never moved their heads from their pillows. All seemed to me to have about them a splendid dignity which made the long, battered, suffering company into some great pageant. I have never seen men so lean as they

nd the cigarettes. All the men had washed at Torneo, and all of them wore clean cotton waistcoats. Their hair was cut, too, but their faces hadn't recovered. One knew they would never be young again. The Germans had done their work. Semi-starvation and wounds had made ol

In the middle of it stood an altar, covered with silver tinsel, and two priests in tinsel and gold stood beside it. Upon it wa

hin cheeks. It was too pitiful and touching to be borne. I remember thinking how quietly and sweetly a sister of mercy went from one group of sold

ED RU

and some service began which I was unable to follow. I can't tell what the soldiers said, or of what they were thinking. About thei

e, unable to swallow it. Then a high official came and sat down and drank his health. The officer raised his glass gallantly, and put

s kind to the returned soldiers, but they had borne too much. Some day they will smile perhaps, but yester