r shaking hands with us both, introduced
us to a dozen other persons around her. Suddenly she said:

"Ah! Here is my dear friend the Lady-of-the-Court Anna Vyrubova. Allow me
to introduce you, Father."

The Starets instantly crossed his hands piously over his breast and bowed
before a good-looking, sleek-faced woman of forty, who was elegantly
dressed, and who greeted him with a humorous smile. Having heard much of
the woman's scandalous past, I naturally regarded her with considerable
curiosity. She was a woman of destiny. Petrograd had not long before been
agog with the scandal following her marriage with a young naval officer,
who had gone to the Baltic, and unexpectedly returning to his wife's room
in the palace at Tsarskoe-Selo, had been shut out by the Empress herself.
The husband had afterwards died in mysterious circumstances, which had
been hushed up by the police, and madame had remained as the personal
attendant upon Her Majesty with her inseparable friend Zeneide Kamensky.

As I watched the monk's meeting with this woman of adventure, I saw that
he had at once fascinated her, just as completely as he had hypnotised
her Imperial mistress. She stood before him, using her small black fan
slowly, for the room was overpoweringly hot, and began to chat, assuring
him that she had for a long time been desirous of meeting him.

As I stood beside Rasputin I heard him say, in that humble manner which
always attracted society women:

"And, O Lady, I have heard of thee often. It is with sincere pleasure
that I gaze upon thy face and speak with thee. It is God's will--let Him
be thanked for this our meeting."

The blasphemy of it all appalled me. I knew of certain deep plots in
progress, and I watched the handsome lady-in-waiting, with whom the monk
crossed the room, nodding self-consciously to the bishops, prelates, and
mock-pious scoundrels of all sorts, with their female victims. I held my
breath in wonder.

As I followed I saw Stuermer, the goat-bearded traitor, standing chatting
to a pretty young girl in turquoise blue. Then I overheard Madame
Vyrubova say to the Starets:

"I came here to-night, Father, especially to meet you. Her Majesty gave
me a message. She is in despair. She requires your help, prayers, and
advice."

"Ah! my dear lady, I regret; I am fully alive to the high honours which
our Tsaritza has done me to command me to Court. But my sphere is with
the poor. My life is with them--for their ben