We drove up to a side entrance under an archway, and then made our way,
a solemn procession, carrying luggage up endless stone stairs and along
stone corridors to the Kameneff apartments. A little peasant maid with a
yellow handkerchief tied over her head ran out to greet us, and kissed
Kameneff on the mouth. Then ensued the awkward moment of being shown to
no room. After eleven days travelling one felt a longing for peace, and
to be able to unpack, instead of which the Russian discussion was
resumed, and I sat stupidly still with nothing to say.
For breakfast I was given coffee and an over-helping of dry tepid rice.
When for a moment I found myself alone with Kameneff I asked him what
was to become of me and begged him to send me to an hotel. But there are
no hotels; everything belongs to the Government. There are however,
guest-houses, but he was averse to my going to one, as he said that I
should be lonely and strange. He told me to leave the matter entirely to
him and he would decide in two hours.
Meanwhile I went for a walk in the Kremlin grounds with Alexandre and
took a lot of photographs. The beauty of it all was a wonderment, and I
was quite happy not to go outside the walls, which I could not do as I
had no pass. Then I came back and waited and waited for Kameneff to come
and tell me where I was to go. As the day passed by I felt more and more
lonely. For lack of another book I read de Maupassant’s “Yvette,” but
hated it, and thanked God that Bolshevism had at least wiped out that
vile world of idle men. At sunset I sat on the ledge of the open window,
and listened to the bells that were ringing from all the domes in
Moscow. Below me was an avenue of trees that reached up to me with
autumn colours. I thought of Dick and that to-day is his birthday. I
knew he must be asking, “Where is ‘Meema’; why doesn’t she come? How
long will she be?”
When it was dark I was still looking out, and Anna Anrevna, the little
maid, came in softly in her string soled shoes and put her arms round
me. She told me in broken German that I must not _traurig sein_.
Kameneff came in at half-past ten, he was very tired and precluded all
further discussion by saying that it was too late to go anywhere else,
and that I must stay for the night. Mrs.
[Illustration: THE KREMLIN, SHOWING ENTRANCE TO THE KAMENEFFS’
APARTMENTS.
_p. 65._]
Kameneff came in from her work a little later. She sank into a chair and
drew her hand across her brow in the most approved way to betoken
physical exhaustion. I was given Alexandre’s room, through which they
have to pass to get to their’s, and I have to pass through their’s to
get to the wash-room, as there is no washstand in my bedroom. I suppose
Alexandre slept on a sofa. Kameneff went back to his Soviet meeting at
eleven, and I heard him pass through my room when he came home at 4 a.m.
SEPTEMBER 21ST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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