I found Anna ill, and light-headed, and, as I entered her bedroom, I thought what a contrast it presented to the cool, darkened room which I had just left. Olga and Tatiana were so patient, they lay so still, and were grateful for any attention. _This_ sick room resembled a “lever du Roi” in the days of Louis XIV. Anna was surrounded by a crowd of “sisters” and three doctors were in attendance. Madame Tanieff was there, looking the picture of misery, and Anna’s sister, who was almost hysterical, kept on exclaiming, “All is lost.” They had expected General Tanieff to lunch, but he had not arrived ... there was no news of him. What were they to do? General Tanieff entered in the midst of this confusion, breathless, and scarlet in the face. “Petrograd is in the hands of the mob,” he exclaimed, “they are stopping all cars ... they commandeered mine, and I’ve had to walk every step of the way.” At this intelligence, Allie Pistolkors (she had married the Grand Duke Paul’s stepson) burst into tears and begged me to ask the Empress what she had better do. I promised to see the Empress at once, and, as the Grand Duchesses Anastasie and Marie had just come to fetch me, I returned to the private apartments with them. The winter afternoon was fast drawing in, and I found the Empress alone in her boudoir. She could give me no message for Mme Pistolkors. “I don’t _know_ what to advise,” she said, sadly. Then, turning to me, “What are _you_ going to do, Lili? Titi is in Petrograd ... had you not better return to him this evening?” At the sight of the Empress, so tragically alone, so helpless in the midst of the signs and splendour of temporal power, I could hardly restrain my tears. Controlling myself with an effort, I tried to steady my voice: “Permit me to remain with _you_, Madame,” I entreated. The Empress looked at me without speaking. Then she took me in her arms and held me close, and kissed me many times, saying as she did so: “I _cannot_ ask you to do this, Lili.” “But I must, Madame,” I answered.... “Please, please let me stay. I can’t go back to Petrograd and leave you here.” The Empress told me that she had tried to ’phone the Emperor, and that she had been unable to do so. “But I have wired him, asking him to return immediately. He’ll be here on Wednesday morning.” After this conversation we went to see the Grand Duchesses, and the Empress lay down on a couch in their bedroom. I sat beside her, and we conversed in low tones so as not to awaken the sleeping girls. The Empress was still unable to believe in the reports, and she expressed a wish to see the Grand Duke Paul. “How I wish he would come,” she said. She then asked me to go over to Anna’s apartments, and say that she felt too unwell to come herself.