their Majesties, and, of course, ikons
of all sorts and sizes to impress the pious.

An example of the rogue's impudence occurred on Easter Day in 1912. We
were breakfasting with Madame Vyrubova's sister at her house just off the
Nevski. With us was Boris Stuermer and two minor officials of the Court,
and we were awaiting the coming of the Tsaritza's favourite lady in
waiting.

At last she arrived from Tsarskoe-Selo bearing a parcel for Grichka,
which she gave him merrily, saying:

"The Empress has made this for you with her own hands. She spent part of
last night in finishing it for you, so that you should have it as an
Easter present."

The "saint" cut the string and withdrew a blue silk coat of the kind he
was in the habit of wearing, in the Russian style, over loose trousers
and high boots of patent leather.

"Alix wishes you to wear it to-day," Madame Vyrubova went on, "after you
have taken Holy Communion."

Rasputin, with a disappointed look, cast it and its paper upon the floor,
and said:

"Now let us have breakfast," and promptly began to eat with his fingers,
as he always did, in order to show his contempt for the more refined
manners of those about him.

A few weeks after this incident there occurred the Ganskau affair, which
was a most disgraceful transaction, and which was very carefully hushed
up. Though there were many rumours in Petrograd concerning it, I am able
to place the whole of the astounding facts on record here for the first
time.

Rasputin, tiring of his lascivious pleasures, also became bored by those
who called in order to enlist his influence in their cause for monetary
consideration. Hence he surrounded himself with a trio of expert
swindlers. They consisted of a certain adventurous prince named
Gorianoff, a man named Striaptchef--who had been his companion in his
early horse-stealing days in his native Pokrovsky--and a notorious woman
named Sabler. These precious persons constituted a sort of bodyguard, and
they first interviewed any petitioner, fixed the amount of the gift
proposed to the "holy man" for the exercise of his influence, and carried
out the "deal."

If a wealthy man desired a Government appointment; if an under-secretary
desired a portfolio; if a wife desired her husband's advancement or his
appointment to an office at Court; if a father desired a lucrative job
for his profligate son; or if a rich man, who was being watched by the
police because of some crime he