But you, my reader, who have lived in a foreign land for any length of time, know well how wearisome becomes the life, however brilliant, and how sweet are the recollections of our dear gray old England with her green fields, her muddy lanes, and the bustling streets of her gray, grimy cities. You have but one "home," and England Is still your home, even though you may become the most bigoted of cosmopolitans and may have no opportunity of speaking your native tongue the whole year through. Duty--the duty of a man who had learned strange facts and knew that a defenseless woman was a victim--called me to Finland. Therefore, with my passport properly viséd and my papers all in order, I one night left Hull for Stockholm by the weekly Wilson service. Four days of rough weather in the North Sea and the Baltic brought me to the Swedish capital, whence on the following day I took the small steamer which plies three times a week around the Aland Islands, and then across the Gulf of Bothnia to Korpo, and through the intricate channels and among those low-lying islands to the gray lethargic town of Abo. It was not the first occasion on which I had trod Russian soil, and I knew too well the annoyances of the bureaucracy. Finland, however, is perhaps the most severely governed of any of the Czar's dominions, and I had my first taste of its stern, relentless officialdom at the moment of landing on the half-deserted quay. In the wooden passport office the uniformed official, on examining my passport, discovered that at the Russian Consulate-General they had forgotten to date the visé which had been impressed with a rubber stamp. It was signed by the Consul-General, but the date was missing, whereupon the man shook his head and handed back the document curtly, saying in Russian, which I understood fairly well, although I spoke badly-- "This is not in order. It must be returned to London and dated before you can proceed." "But it is not my fault," I protested. "It is the fault of the clerk at the Consulate-General." "You should have examined it before leaving. You must send it to London, and return to Stockholm by to-night's boat." "But this is outrageous!" I cried, as he had already taken the papers of a passenger behind me and was looking at them with unconcern. "Enough!" he exclaimed, glaring at me. "You will return to-night, or if you choose to stay you will be arrested for landing without a passport." "I shall not go back!" I declared defiantly. "Your Consul-General viséd my passport, and I claim, under international law, to be allowed to proceed without hindrance." "The steamer leaves at six o'clock," he remarked without looking up. "If you are in Abo after that it will be at your own risk." "I am English, recollect," I said. "To me it does not matter what or who you are. Your passport, undated, is worthless." "I shall complain to the Ambassador at Petersburg."