We put up again at the Hôtel Belle-Vue, and again the hostess stood on the steps with a smiling welcome. On the entrance door a board bore the inscription in English: “A happy Christmas and New Year!”
Scarcely had I time to take off my hat when a boy brought me a harvest of beautiful roses forming quite a large tray. It is the Kahns who have sent me this odoriferous Christmas offering.
In the afternoon, whilst we were sunning ourselves on the terrace, Admiral Doubassoff called upon us with his wife, whom he is sending back to Russia to-morrow. The order of the day prescribed that all Russian subjects should leave the country in forty-eight hours. Clouds are gathering on the political horizon. There are rumours of war between Russia and Japan, and things are working up for an excursion to Manchuria.
December 27th.—It is awfully cold in our apartment. I had to get up in the night and make up the fire which had gone out.
We returned on board after dinner, and shall weigh anchor early to-morrow morning. The Kahns have to hurry to Shanghai and are taking a Japanese steamer to-night. Before leaving they have sent a beautiful bouquet in a “cloisonné” vase to me, with a card bearing their name, and underneath stood “Pour remplacer avantageusement.”
An English liner, which had entered the harbour at night, warned us that a north-east wind was blowing hard out at sea. We have to wait again until to-morrow.
December 29th.—After ten this morning we weighed anchor. Whilst passing before our cruisers, the officers stood in rows on the deck, and the sailors ranged along the sail-yards shouted loud hurras, Admiral Doubassoff was standing on the bridge, making the military salute.
The weather is grey and the sea is swelling. We were scarcely out of harbour when our boat began to be roughly tossed about.
December 30th.—The hurricane is pitiless, the anchor rolls out with a rattle and roar of cable; our steamer leans first on one side then on the other, and piercing whistles are heard on the upper deck all the time. The captain shouts order to tack. We change direction and turn back, and thus all the nightmare night was lost in vain. The portholes were closed and I was almost faint with the want of air. Staggering under the rolling of the sea, I crept into the saloon and stretched myself on the sofa. We enter the mouth of the Voosung, but the pilot refuses to lead us further because of the fog. We have to cast anchor until to-morrow.