e thousands of
blue-eyed Germans and their pointed helmets and guttural speech taking
possession of everything.

As we came down the hill to-day, we saw great vans drawn up before the
Governor's mansion. Soldiers were loading them with the rich furnishings
of the house. Evidently, the Governor had no intention of letting _his_
things fall into the Germans' hands. How strange it looked--the feverish
haste with which the house was being emptied!

At the station a special train was waiting to take the Governor's things
to a place of safety--and the crowds were waiting to escape with their
lives! Now every one with any sort of a boat that will float is making
a fortune taking the terrified townspeople down the river. There are, of
course, horrible accidents, for the boats are overcrowded. One
completely turned turtle with its load of men and women and children.
And yet the Governor's things must be removed to a place of safety.

Aeroplanes scout over the city every day, and at night you can see their
lights moving overhead in the darkness. Sometimes they fly so low that
you can hear the whir of their engines. For the moment you don't know if
they're Russian or enemy ones.

And all night long high-powered automobiles rush up the hill to the
General Headquarters, bearing dispatches from the front.

I lie in bed, and it is impossible for me to sleep. It is as if I were
up over Kiev in an aeroplane, myself. I can see millions of Germans
marching along the roads from Warsaw, dragging their cannon through the
mud, fording streams, with their field kitchens and ambulances, moving
onward irresistibly toward the golden domes of Kiev.

You seem far away to-night. Only I love you. I can't love you enough.

RUTH.

_October._

_Darlingest Mother and Dad:--_

This afternoon I went up to the English Consulate with Sasha. As we
turned the corner we saw a long gray procession of carts crawling down
the hill toward us. I stopped and watched them pass me, one after the
other, crowded over to the side of the road by the usual traffic of a
busy street. Peasants walked by the horses' heads, men in dusty
sheepskin coats, or women muffled up somehow, their hands hidden in the
bosoms of their waists for warmth. They stared ahead with a curious,
blind look in their eyes, as though they did not realize the noise and
movement of the city life about them. How strange it