grad."

"Well, my dear Count," laughed the Emperor carelessly, "better one
Starets than ten hysterics."

This seemed to me to prove that Rasputin's presence often saved the
Emperor from the hysterical outbursts of his wife.

Indeed, only the previous day the monk put about a story in Petrograd to
account for the Empress's hysterical state. He started a rumour that Her
Majesty was, against the advice of the Court physicians, following a
system of German _Entfettungscur_, or cure for obesity, the result having
been a complete breakdown of the nervous system.

Thus, by slow degrees, the artful monk ingratiated himself with the
Imperial family, just as years ago, when a mere cabdriver, in his
pre-saintly days, he happened to ingratiate himself with Alexis, Bishop
of Kazan, who became greatly struck with him, and later pushed him
forward as a holy man, yet for his trouble afterwards found himself swept
away, and his successor appointed by Rasputin's own hand. The monk was
relentless, overbearing, suspicious of any persons who did him a favour,
and at the same time ready to lick the boots of Germany's War Lord.

The "Dark Forces" were now strenuously at work. Little did I enjoy the
quiet of my own rooms in Petrograd. My "saintly" master was ever active
holding conferences, often hourly, with Ministers of State, councillors,
and the "disciples" of his own secret cult.

Very soon I noted that his closest friend was Stolypin, a good-looking
man with beard and curled moustache, who was President of the Council of
Ministers.

At that period Stolypin and the Emperor were inseparable. His Majesty
gave him daily audiences, and sometimes, through Mademoiselle Zeneide
Kamensky, the Empress's chief confidante, he had audience of Her
Majesty.

I met Stolypin often. His Excellency was a bluff but elegant bureaucrat,
who had succeeded Count Witte, a man of refinement, belonging to a very
old boyar family. He was an excellent talker, and with his soft, engaging
manners he could, when he wished, exercise a personal charm that always
had a great effect upon his hearers. His Excellency's great virtue in the
Emperor's eyes was that he never wearied him, and that was much in his
favour; he always curtailed his business. Whatever he had to report to
the Emperor was done quickly, without unnecessary comment, and the
conference ended, they smoked together on terms of almost equality.

I beg the reader's pardon if I here digress for a mome