10.30, Sydney came, and while we were talking Kameneff rang up to say he had a few short hours ago had his interview with Lloyd George, and that he gathered from the interview that he, Kameneff, leaves to-morrow, not to return--this was to warn me--but he told me to come all the same. I rang up S---- L----, who could hardly believe that I am really starting. He came round to see me, and we talked far into the night. SEPTEMBER 11TH. Mr. Krassin, and most of the 128 New Bond Street staff, were at St. Pancras to see us start. Krassin presented me with a big box of chocolates tied up with red ribbons. We were rather a conspicuous group on the platform, and I feared every second to meet someone whom I knew travelling, possibly to York, on the same train. S---- L---- was there to wish me God-speed, and Sydney, who is staying with friends near Newcastle, and came down yesterday to spend my last evening with me, travelled back to Newcastle with us. Rigamonti turned up unexpectedly, which touched me very much. Sydney, fulfilling his reputation as an organiser, discovered that there were two trains going to Newcastle, and that the next one which left a little later had a restaurant car, so we transferred our luggage from the one to the other, and in the process I lost my handbag, which had a hundred pounds in it in bank notes, all I possess in the world. It caused me some agitation, but Kameneff was quite calm and seemed to think that money was not very important, and that I should not have much need of it in Russia. To my intense relief, however, Sydney found the case at Newcastle, in the lost property office, it travelled ahead of us on the other train. Sydney came to the ship with us, I don’t think he believed in the reality of my journey until he saw me safely past the passport officials. I certainly felt no sense of security until the steamer left the quay-side. There was something indescribably exciting and clandestine about slipping away without anyone knowing. For some time Kameneff and I stood on deck to see the last of England, with her Turner sky. The sunset was golden haze, and Kameneff said: “It looks mysterious, that land, doesn’t it?” But to me it was just the old world wrapped in a shroud. Mystery lay ahead of us in the new world that is our destination. Now for the first time I had leisure and calm in which to think over what I am doing. There persist in my mind faint echoes of warnings, but I must have no misgivings, it seems to me unlikely that Kameneff would invite me to go to his country if I were likely to be either unhappy or in danger there. He must know what he is doing, and what he is taking me to. There are moments in life when it is necessary to have blind faith. SEPTEMBER 12TH. _S.S. “Jupiter,” Bergen, Norway._ It is 9.45 pm. We have just this moment come along the quay-side at Bergen. We are not to land until to-morrow morning. The crossing has been wonderful; as calm as a lake the whole way.