The complete abolition of the Traffic in drink was effected in two days, all over Russia, by the Emperor's order, and at this very moment, in spite of the war and our bewildering expenditure in self-defence, for which Russia never thought of preparing herself, our Minister of Public Instruction, Count Ignatieff, is elaborating another gigantic reform--the execution of which will prove that he is a true son of his celebrated father. The latter, Count Nicolas Ignatieff, our former Ambassador in {181} Turkey, and later Minister of Interior, was well known in the world for his grand schemes and ideas. At this moment, whilst I am writing this (August, 1916) the intention is to introduce in the whole of our large country, _general_ compulsory education, and ten additional universities. And we Russians firmly believe in the realisation of measures of such gigantic proportions, when they are urgently needed by our people. With us, what may seem almost incredible becomes perfectly real when guided by one concentrated and intelligent power. {182} CHAPTER XIII MISCELLANEOUS MEMORIES My Embarrassment--A Spy--I Am Easily Taken In--A Demand for Fifty Pounds--A Threat--I Defy the Blackmailer--A Warning--Gladstone's Refusal to Meet Gambetta--My Husband's Dilemma--Russian Views on Duelling--Kinglake Challenges an Emperor--My Brother's Views--Kinglake's Charm--The Value of an Englishman--The Dogger Bank Incident I once heard an after-dinner speaker refer to his remarks as "long pauses bridged by a poverty of thought." I find that a volume of reminiscences is in danger of becoming a sheaf of inconsequences bound by unpardonable egotism. I seem long since to have exhausted what I regard as a reasonable number of I's; and then again, there are so many things that I want to say that bear no reasonable relation to each other. My position is that of the young man at a dinner party who was boiling over with eagerness to tell a shooting story. He waited impatiently for the conversation to develop in such a direction as would enable him to drag it in. Dessert arrived, and still no opening. In sheer desperation he stamped loudly on the floor beneath the table. "What was that? Sounded like a gun. Talking of guns, etc.," and he secured his opening. If I appear inconsequent, my readers must remember that young man's shooting story and forgive me. {183} For some reason that I have never quite been able to understand, people seem to think that I am endowed with great wealth. If they only knew how money hates me. The moment I take it into my hands it runs and runs away from me with frightened speed. But all this does not prevent people from convincing themselves not only that I am possessed of great riches, but that I am so stupid as not to know what to do with them.