I had some accidental meetings with old friends at the Exhibition. One day, in the whirl of the crowd, I found myself suddenly face to face with Mr. O., my old love, for whom I had had a strong liking in my girlhood days. It was an age since I had heard anything of him and he was the last person I ever expected to see there. I had quite rubbed him out of my mind and there he was now. I could scarcely believe my eyes. My heart gave a little jump and I don’t mind confessing, I was rather pleased to see him, although I thought I had long since given him up for ever. The sight of Mr. O. gave me an odd mixture of sensation, I was startled, I was disturbed, I was pleased. Time had made but few changes in his appearance, he had grown a trifle stouter, that was all, and I recognised him immediately. For the first moment agitation deprived us both of speech. On overcoming his constraint, Mr. O. began to talk of different things, he chaffed and laughed and told funny stories as of yore. Presently we discovered a comfortable seat and sat down near where the band was playing. Suddenly Mr. O. became serious and began assuring me of his love, of his fidelity. Oh, the things he said to me! I wanted to put a stop to his passionate outburst, and felt very angry with my paralysed tongue. All the same I could not remain entirely unmoved, and to my extreme disgust I felt myself turning very red, and for the sake of doing something, I began drawing circles with my umbrella on the sand, looking anywhere but into his face. When recovering my composure I felt it my duty to lead the conversation into other channels and though my colour was beyond my control, my voice was steady, and with eyes which still declined to meet his, I told him he should leave off talking such nonsense, doing my best to make light of the matter. But he gazed at my downcast countenance and said, “I love you Vava!” to my very face, as if he had the right to call me by my Christian name. When we got up and passed through the section of toys, he asked abruptly if I had any children, and without waiting for my reply, he disappeared and returned soon after, holding a small india-rubber monkey by a long string. He thrust this little horror into my hand whispering, “That’s for your baby.” As it appeared Mr. O., who had married soon after me, had neither any babies of his own, and thus this nasty little monkey was of no good to either of us.
In September the Grand Duke Nicholas came to witness the grand manœuvres and stopped at Petrovski Palace. We lived in one of the wings of the palace, and wanting to see the Grand Duke’s arrival, I had to mount a narrow cork-screw staircase, with shattered steps leading up one of the turrets. The walls were mouldy and hung with cobwebs which tumbled down upon my head. The view of Moscow and its surroundings, on reaching the top of the turret, was a thorough compensation for my disagreeable climb.
The next day I was invited to a dancing-party given in honour of the Grand Duke at the military summer club on the Khodinka Field. The Grand Duke was very affable towards me and contrived to put me at my ease at once. His Highness asked me to take tea with him. He seemed in capital spirits and talked in the most friendly way. He told me that he remembered me when I was quite a little thing and wore socks and pinafore, and said that passing through the town of Kharkoff he came to visit my parents and made me jump upon his knee. We sat round the tea-table for a long time. In bidding good-bye the Grand Duke proposed to me to come on the manœuvre-ground the following morning.
Getting up at break of day I hurried to our rendezvous and saw the Grand Duke in the distance standing upon a hillock amongst a group of generals and officers surveying the sham-fight with a field glass at his eye. On perceiving me the Grand Duke nodded and waved his hand, and when I approached His Highness, he inquired after the state of my health, fearing I had taken a cold in remaining out in the club-garden so long the night before.
A few days later a sham-alarm was raised in the camp. I was out before five o’clock in the morning and directed my steps towards the camp half asleep and yawning widely. There was still moonlight outside, and the breeze that ran before daybreak was making me shiver a little. Suddenly cannon-shots were heard and in less than two minutes the whole camp was astir. The soldiers rushed out of their tents and arranged themselves in battle-columns, whilst trumpet signals rent the air.
No sooner had the Grand Duke Nicholas departed than his brother the Grand Duke Michael arrived to inspect the artillery. During his stay the artillery officers gave a lunch at the military club. I was invited to it, but was about to refuse, being very unwilling to go there alone, as Sergy was not quite well. But there was no escaping from it, and I had to accept the invitation. Countess Brevern, the wife of the commander-in-chief, who was also going with her two daughters to that lunch, offered to take me under her wing. When I was being presented to the Grand Duke he did not recognise me at first, and taking me for one of the young countesses he asked their mother which number I was. “Your Highness does not recognise me!” I exclaimed indignantly. When the countess named me, the Grand Duke pressed my hand warmly and said that I looked so absurdly young, that there was nothing surprising at all that he did not recognise in me such a respectable person as the wife of the chief of the staff.
Lunch passed off gaily, and I was glad after all that I went to it. The Grand Duke was charming to me and not at all ceremonious; I soon felt quite at my ease with him, and entirely free from shyness. Altogether I enjoyed myself thoroughly, although I had been dragged there by force and considered myself a victim, feeling like a lamb about to be led to slaughter, and compared that lunch to a disagreeable pill which had to be swallowed.
In November Sergy had to go to St. Petersburg and took me with him. Whilst there, I had the chance to be present at a banquet given in the Hall of the Assembly on the day of the jubilee of the Academy of the General Staff. With difficulty I got a place in the gallery, from where I could see very well. As I was ascending the stairs, someone called me by my name, I looked round and saw the Grand Duke Michael hastening up to me. Putting out a welcoming hand His Highness exclaimed,
“You can’t say now that I did not recognise you and it will atone for my former mistake, I hope!” to which I answered that the Grand Duke would only be completely forgiven when I receive his photograph from him. The very next day he sent me his portrait with his autograph.
Spring came with galloping speed. The date of the Coronation was fixed for the 15th May. I went to see the Court Regalias exposed to view in the Kremlin Palace. The crown and the sceptre, studded with precious stones as big as nuts, amazed me by their incredible richness. On the walls hung Gobelin tapestries and pictures taken from the Bible. Just opposite the Metropolitan’s seat I saw a painting illustrating the story of Potipher’s wife dragging Joseph by his legendary mantle. These heroes of the Ancient Testament being very lightly clad, the police censor had found it necessary to dress them in a more decent manner for the Coronation, leaving at the same time, just next to that picture, a large canvas representing a group of the “Happy Just” enjoying Paradise in a completely nude state. I also went to see a fine assortment of State carriages and the beautiful horses which were to drag them, pure white Hanoverians all of them.