On the very first evening we met at the Hotel Meissl a few members of the Reichsrat who were friends of ours, and, still under the influence of our exciting experiences, I told them the whole story of the founding of the Venetian Peace Society through a member of the Italian chamber. I also told them about the Interparliamentary League which had been formed in Paris in the year 1888, had met in London the year before, and was to have its rendezvous in Rome this year. The gentlemen listened with interest but with very skeptical faces. As to joining, none of them had any idea of it. At Harmannsdorf we industriously resumed our work. My husband wrote his Caucasian story “Shamyl,” and I also sketched the plan of a new novel, _Vor dem Gewitter_ (“Before the Storm”). What was meant was the political and social storm whose clouds are rolling up in all quarters. Literary work did not keep me from busying myself with the peace cause so dear to me, for I kept up a steady correspondence with Hodgson Pratt, Moscheles, Frédéric Passy, and others. I received word from Pandolfi that he, encouraged by his success in Venice, was now zealously at work in the Roman chamber, enlisting as large a committee as possible for the Interparliamentary Conference. He was having brilliant success; three hundred senators and deputies enrolled themselves. Now he was especially concerned to have parliamentary committees formed in Germany and Austria also, in order to send representatives to the conference in Rome, the date of which was set for November. He urged me, in case I had any connections with Austrian parliamentarians, to assist in the matter. That was at the beginning of June. What difficulties and what delays preceded the formation of an Austrian group, will be apparent from a bunch of letters which I have preserved from that time. The writers were people with whom I had communicated in the matter first personally (we went to Vienna for that purpose) and then by correspondence. From Baron Kübeck, whose name I found in the London Peace Association and who therefore seemed to me most fitted to further the cause, I received a very explicit answer, which is interesting especially by its excursions into the domain of foreign politics as they were understood in the year 1891 in our political circles. Vienna, June 11, 1891 Highly honored, most gracious Baroness: First of all I beg your kind indulgence for my long delay in answering your friendly communication. The highly interesting inclosure I return with thanks, having taken a copy from the address circular (which should perhaps be sent also to Smolka and Trautmannsdorf?). My now somewhat overcrowded affairs, and especially my attempts to sound some of my more prominent colleagues, are responsible for this delay.