"That was my last experiment with Socialism. It is certain that if it had not been for Papa's Cossacks all those folk would have cut each other's throats. * * * * * * "One day in February, 1909, when I was just on twenty, I was shooting duck from a boat in a branch of the Volga when I saw on the bank Papa's favourite Cossack signalling wildly with his cap on the end of his sabre. "He was shouting as well, though I couldn't hear him. I gathered that something must have happened at home, but I wanted to appear indifferent in spite of my burning curiosity to know what all the fuss was about. I only put in to the bank an hour later, when the poor man was almost dead with waving his arms and shouting so much. He told me the Prince wanted me in his study. I took as long as I could getting there, anticipating a good lecture. "I got nothing of the kind. Papa seemed radiant about something. He kissed me, then, showing me a large envelope with red seals on his bureau, he told me what it was about. "It was a letter to Papa from the Czar. It informed him that in May the Emperor William was to visit St. Petersburg and that there would be great celebrations, ending up with a review at Tsarskoïe-Selo; that he therefore wished the Astrakhan and Aral Cossacks to be represented, and begged the Tumene Prince to bring a brigade with him. 'The Czarina,' he added, 'will be glad to make her little niece's acquaintance on this occasion.' I had forgotten to tell you that I was her niece, owing to Papa's marriage with a Grand-Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. "I can assure you that I had never found the days long in our Volga palace, yet, as I listened to my father, I must confess to a feeling of joyous excitement, and from that moment I had only one idea--to astonish the Czar, the Czarina, the German Emperor and, indeed, the whole world. I spent days on end looking into my glass, and admit that I was not altogether displeased with what I saw there. "Hitherto I had had my clothes made at Astrakhan by Menjuzan Sœurs, excellent French dressmakers who visited Paris once a year for their models and did good business with fashionable Circassian society. Papa gave me unlimited credit and two days later I left with Mlle. Jauffre. But I must tell you I had a scheme of my own. "I came back from Astrakhan and told him I could find nothing at all. I wept all over him and vowed I would never appear at Court dressed like a savage. You can imagine that I had no intention of missing such a splendid opportunity of seeing Paris. Papa took a good deal of persuading, but I soon realized he wouldn't be sorry to see his old friends there again. "We left early in March. My one fear when we arrived in Paris, of which my head was full, was to betray any sort of astonishment, and that is no doubt why my manner was somewhat affected.