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236 MY TRANSFER TO STOCKHOLM [ch. xiv.
You know how much I like him and all his family; and
I am still cordially devoted to them in spite of all that
has occurred."
On this I took my leave of Queen Eleanor—and for
ever; she died three years later.
On my way back to Russia I spent a few days in
Vienna. I used to know this city very well, but since
my long stay in Paris I had only passed through it.
This time the gay Austrian capital, where the season
was in full swing, had a depressing effect on me.
There was an atmosphere of uneasiness, and the
ingenuous and gay good temper which has always
been a characteristic trait of the Viennese of all
classes, seemed to have completely disappeared. I
mentioned this impression to a few members of our
Embassy.
" Is it really so? " I asked them, " or have I aged so
terribly in the meantime that everything seems to me
aged and tarnished around me?"
"Not at all," was the reply. "One can no longer
recognise Vienna, and the cause lies in the profound
anxiety reigning here. No one is sure of the morrow.
All business is at a standstill, and heaps of people have
been ruined on the Bourse. Every one is afraid of war.
This began already in 1909, but now it has reached a
state of paroxysm. Several great financiers say openly
that it would be better if war actually broke out, for
this awaiting of events and perpetual uncertainty are
more ruinous than anything. But on the whole every
one fears war."
By the middle of January, O.S., I was in St.
Petersburg. Never had the rich world of St. Petersburg
amused itself as it did during that last winter. In
society, one entertainment succeeded another.
Fancy-dress balls, balls where coloured wigs were worn,
parties at the Embassies, and in the Grand-Dukes’
palaces. Theatres and restaurants were filled every
evening with a brilliant crowTd. There was much
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