t--another hundred thousand roubles, and surely it is
worth it."

The banker, seeing himself in great danger should either Rasputin or his
visitor turn against him, at length consented, and before Gorianoff left
he had in his pocket a draft upon the Credit Lyonnais for the sum
mentioned. The assassin had at first made it a condition that the
confession should be handed to him before he paid, but the prince pointed
out that the money was required for bribery, and would have to be paid
before the confession could be extracted from Rasputin's safe.

Needless to say, the banker never received back his written confession of
his crime, and so constant was the strain of his guilty conscience and
his hourly dread of arrest and capital punishment, that a year later he
shot himself at an hotel in Plymouth.

Another illustration of the monk's greed and unscrupulousness was the
Violle affair.

Monsieur Felix Violle, a Frenchman who had become a naturalised Russian,
and who carried on business as a wholesale furrier in the Nevski in
Petrograd, had a very pretty young wife. One day, at one of the weekly
reunions of the sister-disciples, this young woman was brought by Madame
Vyrubova's sister, she having expressed her desire to enter Rasputin's
cult. There were present on that occasion about thirty other women,
mostly young and good-looking, and nearly all of the highest society in
Petrograd. The youngest present was about seventeen, the daughter of a
certain countess who was one of Rasputin's most attached devotees.

After Madame Violle had been initiated into the secrets of the erotic
sect, the whole party sat down to tea, when a photograph was taken by one
of the ladies, which showed Madame Violle seated by the "holy Father."

Rasputin, from that day, took a great deal of interest in the furrier's
wife. He introduced her to Anna Vyrubova, who presented her to the
Empress. Hence, from being a tradesman's wife, Olga Violle, within a
fortnight, had entered the vicious Court circle which revolved around
Alexandra Feodorovna, and which was rapidly conspiring to betray Russia
into the hands of the Germans.

Madame Violle told her husband nothing of her social advancement. The
furrier was in a large way of business, a man of means who liked to see
his wife well dressed; therefore she was able to cut an elegant figure at
Court. She accounted for her absences from home by the fact that she
frequently visited a married sister living