boy had cost him. They
tell us--these defrauded broken-hearted ones--just how tall the lad was,
and how good to look at! That seems to me so sad--as if one reckoned
one's love by inches! And yet it is the beauty of youth that I mourn
also, and its horribly lonely death.

"They never got him further than the dressing-station," Mr. ---- said;
"but--he would always put up a fight, you know--he lived for four days.
No, there was never any hope. Half the back of his head was shattered.
But he put up a fight. My brother would always do that."

PART III

RUSSIA AND THE PERSIAN FRONT

CHAPTER I

PETROGRAD

Mrs. Wynne, Mr. Bevan, and I left London for Russia on October 16, 1915.
We are attached provisionally to the Anglo-Russian hospital, with a
stipulation that we are at liberty to proceed to 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. We crossed from Newcastle to Christiania in
a Norwegian boat, the _Bessheim_. It was supposed that in this ship
there was less chance of being stopped, torpedoed, or otherwise
inconvenienced.

We reached Christiania after a wonderfully calm crossing, and went to
the Grand Hotel at 1 a.m. No rooms to be had, so we went on to the
Victoria--a good old house, 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 twenty-four boxes with us. I
only claim four, and feel as if I might have brought more, but everyone
has a different way of travelling, and luggage is often objected to.

Indeed, I think this matter of travelling is one of the most curious in
the world. I cannot understand why it is that to get into a train or a
boat causes men and women to leave off restraint and to act in a
primitive 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 were very careful indeed, and we used to reckon up
accounts and divide the price of a bottle of "vin ordinaire" equally. My
friends to-day seem inclined to do themselves very well, and to scatter
largesse everywhere.

[Page Heading: STOCKHOLM]

_Stockholm. 21 October._--After a long day in the train we reached
Stockholm yesterday evening,