My efforts were unavailing. Rasputin could be as obstinate as a mule; and so, greatly distressed, I returned to the Palace. The Empress was very disappointed. “I wonder why the Sister was so against my wishes,” she said. Later on we understood. I think that, despite her plotting and contriving, Akilina really had some affection for Rasputin, and she was occasionally ashamed of her Judas-like rôle. I remember that once, when Rasputin left Petrograd on a visit to his family, I went to see him off, and there, naturally, I encountered Akilina. As the train steamed out of the station she burst into tears--genuine tears; I saw there was no hypocrisy in her grief. Although I disliked Akilina, I felt sorry for her. “You’d better let me drive you home,” I said. She accepted my offer, but in the car her tears recommenced. “Whatever is the matter?” I enquired. “You’ll see the Father again.” Akilina raised her tear-drenched eyes. “Ah--you know _nothing_--if you only knew--if you only knew what I know.” Surely this remark must have implied that she possessed some inner knowledge which terrified her, and which may have made her conscience-stricken. Akilina nursed Anna at Tsarkoe Selo when she was ill with the measles, but on the second day of the Revolution she sent me a note, asking me to come over to the left wing of the Palace. She then informed me that Anna was delirious.... “However, I can’t do much for her. Will you tell Her Majesty that I must go into town for a day. I want to see Gregory’s family.” I promised to deliver the message, but we never saw Akilina again. A fortnight later we were told that she was living in the family of one of the most prominent Revolutionaries. Another “Sister,” Voskoboinikova, equally associated with Rasputin, was head matron of Anna’s hospital. She was, likewise, a great friend of M. Protopopoff, the Minister of the Interior, who used to spend hours in her company. Voskoboinikova possessed a certain fascination, but she was very inquisitive, and we equally disliked each other. Following the example of Akilina, she left Tsarkoe on the second day of the Revolution, but, the night before relinquishing her position at the hospital, she gave a dinner to the convalescent soldiers, when wine flowed freely and all sorts of seditious speeches were made. The soldiers were told to look to Petrograd for freedom, and that revolvers and bullets were fine things. Truly women had their uses during the Revolution! But to return to Rasputin. The feeling against him daily assumed larger proportions. Elidor once sent a woman to kill him, and the Father was badly wounded in the stomach, but it is untrue to say that Anna Virouboff nursed him during the illness which ensued. She never attempted to do so.