“Ah—you know nothing—if you only knew—if you only knew what I know.”
Surely this remark must have implied that she possessed some inner knowledge which terrified her, and which may have made her conscience-stricken.
Akilina nursed Anna at Tsarkoe Selo when she was ill with the measles, but on the second day of the Revolution she sent me a note, asking me to come over to the left wing of the Palace. She then informed me that Anna was delirious....
“However, I can’t do much for her. Will you tell Her Majesty that I must go into town for a day. I want to see Gregory’s family.”
I promised to deliver the message, but we never saw Akilina again. A fortnight later we were told that she was living in the family of one of the most prominent Revolutionaries.
Another “Sister,” Voskoboinikova, equally associated with Rasputin, was head matron of Anna’s hospital. She was, likewise, a great friend of M. Protopopoff, the Minister of the Interior, who used to spend hours in her company. Voskoboinikova possessed a certain fascination, but she was very inquisitive, and we equally disliked each other. Following the example of Akilina, she left Tsarkoe on the second day of the Revolution, but, the night before relinquishing her position at the hospital, she gave a dinner to the convalescent soldiers, when wine flowed freely and all sorts of seditious speeches were made. The soldiers were told to look to Petrograd for freedom, and that revolvers and bullets were fine things. Truly women had their uses during the Revolution!
But to return to Rasputin. The feeling against him daily assumed larger proportions. Elidor once sent a woman to kill him, and the Father was badly wounded in the stomach, but it is untrue to say that Anna Virouboff nursed him during the illness which ensued. She never attempted to do so.
Prince Felix Yousopoff, whose name will always be connected with the tragedy of Rasputin, first met him at the house of Mme Golovina, a sister-in-law of the Grand Duke Paul. The demoiselle Golovina greatly admired Felix Yousopoff, in fact her “flamme” for him was well known. Some considerable time elapsed between the first meeting of Prince Felix and Rasputin: I spent the next two years chiefly in Reval, but I used to pay a fortnightly visit to the Empress, and, after my husband was sent to England, I went to Petrograd, where I saw the Empress daily. I was very surprised when she told me that Felix Yousopoff was a constant visitor at Rasputin’s house; in fact I was so incredulous that I asked Rasputin whether this was true.
“Yes—it’s quite true,” he answered, “I have a great affection for Prince Yousopoff, I never call him anything else but ‘Little One.’”
Mary Golovina, to whom also I expressed my astonishment, said that Prince Yousopoff declared that Rasputin’s prayers benefited him: so there was nothing more to be said.