Entry 4 - Baroness B.

 Baroness Sophia Karlovna Buxhoeveden (1883 - 1956)
 Lady in waiting to Empress Alexandra Romanov and
author of three memoirs about the Imperial family.


We all went to the "Farce," Maroossia and F., myself and Misha.

Afterwards we had supper.  At the next table to us were the M's.,
Alexander Ivanitsky and the Baroness B. 

Since her return she certainly looks much better. At first I did not see her, 
then before all she reprimanded me in her usual kind manner. She had grown a little
thinner and has more jewelry I should say, and is as fascinating as before. 

When she speaks one can see that she thinks of far distant things.

"We all are busy these days," she said, when I asked her whether she
came here from England just for curiosity to see all of us under the
Provisional Government. "You did not change at all." 

Misha, who did not know B. before, did not like her very much -- in fact, they all
think she is suspicious. Aren't these youngsters peculiar? Especially
Misha who is so grouchy lately -- all seems dangerous to him. 

I never think that a woman can be anything but pretty or hideous. There is no
middle, and no suspicion about them. If a woman is, what they perhaps
would call "suspicious" -- then there is a man's influence behind
her -- so find the man (and it is easy) and she is as plain as a card
on the table. 

Baroness B. is pretty. And if she likes to talk like a Pythia -- that's her way 
of making people interested in her.

Maroossia complained of a headache, so we left early.  Baroness is in
the Hotel d'Europe -- she is so sorry that "her Astoria" became such a
hole. Well -- not only her Astoria.


 
The Hotel d'Europe in St. Petersburg,
located at the intersection of Nevskii Prospekt
and Mikhailovskaya Street.