It is an entirely new
world. So interesting and so beautiful! No one could be lovelier to
me than Madame Bakhmeteff. She comes in to my room every two minutes
and asks me if I have anything under the sun and seems so pleased to
have me here. It is really delightful. I have a sitting room next
to my bedroom all to myself, filled with every book that I have been
longing to get hold of. Everything is so picturesque. I was
delighted with Denmark but how different this is. There is something
I respond to in that orderly, cold atmosphere, but I think there is
more that I respond to in the Orient. How much more simple and less
complicated the life is here. I was almost stopped at the Hungarian
and Servian frontier because I had no passport. By the merest chance
I had a very old one in my bag which was absolutely invalid but
which, added to my absolute refusal to leave the train, got me by the
three frontiers in the end. I called a Turk and a Servian who were
in the same compartment to my rescue and for an hour or more carried
on a heated discussion in every language. I am going to ride every
day much to my delight. The diplomatic corps have to depend almost
entirely on each other and it is very interesting being thrown with
people of so many different nationalities. I have been living so
fully it seems to me for the last three or four years and still
always a crescendo. I don't know why I always write so much about
myself--egotistical youth--but how I realize my youth. Even while
youth itself makes my head whirl, I stand back within myself and say
almost sadly--it is youth. It is sad in a way because I know that
the reaction of great interest upon me is youth, and not the
interest."

Sofia 1900.

"You speak of danger; I don't see where danger is. The worst evil is
prejudice. Without prejudice and without too much drive for worldly
attainments, I don't see much danger. I am satisfied as far as I
myself am concerned. Every moment is exciting and the regret or
irritation I feel against many existing conditions is not wholly
disagreeable. This is youth, and when I am older I will jog along at
a slower rate. I am not like you, or like almost anyone I know, but
I admire and respect those most whom I resemble the least. I am one
mass of contradictions to myself, perhaps, supremely self-centered."

Sofia 1900.

"The freedom I have, good or bad, does not depend on the external
conditions of one's life. I have enough sense of wha