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I9»] DRAWING-ROOM GOSSIP 79
should have consented to fight a duel with this low
scoundrel. It was inconsistent on his part. But then
it is through inconsistency and superfluous generosity
that we Russians usually err.
It was not only Goutchkoff who spoke to me with
indignation about Soukhomlinoff. The President of the
Council, Kokovtzoff, who was always extremely guarded
in his conversation, spoke in very bitter terms, one day,
about his colleague of the War Office: " What can one
do," he said, " when the Minister for War is a
gentleman whose sole wish is to report to the Emperor, in his
most agreeable baritone voice, the things which please
His Majesty, but which he, Soukhomlinoff, knows
perfectly well to be untrue! "
On the other hand, Kokovtzoff did not like Goutchkoff
either; he accused him of being ambitious and conceited,
and of causing unscrupulous political disturbances.
And it was between these three persons :
Soukhomlinoff, Goutchkoff, and Kokovtzoff, that questions
relative to our armament were to be discussed !
In the salons of St. Petersburg, which I frequented
fairly regularly, Rasputin was the sole topic of
conversation. Some persons, who were in a position to
know, and who were very truthful, told me amongst
other things that the Dowager Empress
Marie-Feodorovna had been to Tsarskoe-Selo and had had a
heart-to-heart talk with her son and daughter-in-law.
" It is no question of you, of your affections, your
convictions or rather your religious manias," she said,
addressing the Empress Alexandra; "it is a question of
the Emperor, of the Dynasty, of Russia ! If you go on
in this way, you will be the undoing of us all!"
A fortnight after my arrival in St. Petersburg, I was
invited to an evening party given by the Foreign
Secretary—the first big reception held by the Sazonoffs
since their return from Davos. The beautiful " Empire "
reception-rooms were brilliantly lit up, and gradually
filled with guests: members of the Cabinet, of the
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