Part 21 (1/2)

This is rather a curious place, and the climate is quite good; no snow, and a good deal of pleasant sun, but the hills all round are very bare and rugged.

I have had a cough, which I think equals your best efforts in that line.

How it does shake one up! I had some queer travelling when it was at its worst: for the first night we were given a shakedown in a little mountain hospital, which was fearfully cold; and the next night I was put into a newly-built little place, made of planks roughly nailed together, and with just a bed and a basin in it.

The cold was wonderful, and since then--as you may imagine--the Macnaughtan cough has been heard in the land!

[Page Heading: GRAND DUKE NICHOLAS]

Yesterday (Christmas Day) we were invited to breakfast with the Grand Duke Nicholas. A Court function in Russia is the most royal that you can imagine--no half measures about it! The Grand Duke is an adorably handsome man, quite extraordinarily and obviously a Grand Duke. He measures 6 feet 5 inches, and is wors.h.i.+pped by every soldier in the Army.

We went first into a huge anteroom, where a lady-in-waiting received us, and presented us to ”Son Altesse Imperiale,” and then to the Grand Duke and to his brother, the Grand Duke Peter. Some scenes seem to move as in a play. I had a vision of a great polished floor, and many tall men in Cossack dress, with daggers and swords, most of them different grades of Princes and Imperial Highnesses.

A great party of Generals, and ladies, and members of the Household, then went into a big dining-room, where every imaginable hors d'oeuvre was laid out on dishes--dozens of different kinds--and we each ate caviare or something. Afterwards, with a great tramp and clank of spurs and swords, everyone moved on to a larger dining-room, where there were a lot of servants, who waited excellently.

In the middle of the dejeuner the Grand Duke Nicholas got up, and everyone else did the same, and they toasted us! The Grand Duke made a speech about our ”gallantry,” etc., etc., and everyone raised gla.s.ses and bowed to one. Nothing in a play could have been more of a real fine sort of scene. And certainly S. Macnaughtan in her wildest dreams hadn't thought of anything so wonderful as being toasted in Russia by the Imperial Staff.

It's quite a thing to be tiresome about when one grows old!

In the evening we tried to be merry, and failed. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess sent us mistletoe and plum-pudding by the hand of M. Boulderoff. He took us shopping, but the bazaars are not interesting.

Good-bye, and bless you, my dear, Yours as ever, S. MACNAUGHTAN.

_To Miss Julia Keays-Young._

HOTEL D'ORIENT, TIFLIS, CAUCASUS, RUSSIA, _27 December._

DARLING JENNY,

I can't tell you what a pleasure your letters are. I only wish I could get some more from anybody, but not a line gets through! I want so much to hear about Bet and her marriage, and to know if the nephews and Charles are safe.

There seems to be the usual winter pause over the greater part of the war area, but round about here, there are the most awful ma.s.sacres; 550,000 Armenians have been slaughtered in cold blood by the Turks, and with cruelties that pa.s.s all telling. One is quite impotent.

I expect to be sent into Persia soon, and meanwhile I hope to join some American missionaries who are helping the refugees. Our ambulances are at last out of the ice at Archangel, and will be here in a fortnight; but we are not to go to Persia for a month. ”The Front” is always altering, and we never have any idea where our work will be wanted.

[Page Heading: HOMESICK]

We are still asking when the war will end, but, of course, no one knows.

One gets pretty homesick out here at times, and there was a chance I might have to go back to England for equipment, but that seems off at present.

Your always loving A. S.

_29 December._--I have still got a horrid bad cough, and my big, dull room is depressing. We are all depressed, I am afraid. Being accustomed to have plenty to do, this long wait is maddening.

Whatever Russia may have in store for us in the way of useful work, nothing can exceed the boredom of our first seven weeks here. We are just spoiling for work. I believe it is as bad as an illness to feel like this, and we won't be normal again for some time. Oddly enough, it does affect one's health, and Hilda Wynne and I are both seedy. We are always trying to wire for things, but not a word gets through.

We were summoned to dine at the palace last night. Everyone very charming.