"I am certain that the former occupant of this villa was some Russian
of taste and means. Today, while leaning against a wall that was
paneled after the fashion of the walls in the Hermitage, one of the
panels gave way and I found myself toppling backward into a very large
room resembling a gallery. There were a number of wall hangings of
silk from which the pictures had been removed. The candelabra was of
malachite. There were clumps of violet jasper, porphyry, lapis-lazuli,
aventurine and syenite scattered around as though the place had been
divested of its furnishings in a hurry. I have seen the same things
in the HERMITAGE when for architectural elegance, richness of
ornamentation and lavishness of decoration it was unequaled by any art
museum in the world.... While poking around among the piles of tables
and vases that were moved over to one corner I came across a box of
paintings that must have been STOLEN from St. Petersburg.[A] ... Here
is the _Madonna del Latte_ of Corregio, or a mighty good imitation,
that everyone remembers, from the Hermitage. Here is Rembrandt's
'_Girl with the Broom_,' the _Portrait of Sobieski_, and the
'_Farmyard_' of Paul Potter. Here is the '_Expulsion of Hagar_' by
Rubens in which Sarah wears a white handkerchief and yellow veil
around her head, with one of her hands resting on her hip and the
other encased in a blue sleeve raised in a threatening gesture toward
Hagar, and here is '_Celestine and her Daughter_ _in Prison_,' that
one NEVER forgets because of the controversy between the partisans of
Murillo and Velasquez over which of these two painters did the
work. And here is Lossenke's '_Sunrise on the Black Sea_,' Ugrimov's
'_Capture of Kazan_' and '_Election of Michael Romanov_,' in which the
artist reaches the heights of Oriental splendor in color, composition
and design.... There is a FORTUNE going to the devil in this room!...
This house is L-shaped. The garden in the rear faces a pretentious
two-story dwelling surrounded by a wall, like a Governor General's
mansion in its yellow-pinkish coat. Tall poplar trees wave in front
and the classic columns running up to the entablature give the place
an official sort of front. There is a drug store on the corner across
the way doing business under the name of _Torkiani_. To the right,
at the end of the street, is a girls' college; to the left, about
800 feet away, in the center of the street, is the _Alexander Nevsky
Church_, if I'm not very much mistaken. This city must have been a
wonder before the war...." Then this entry: "Something is about
to happen!... My sentry seems very excited over the desertion 'on
Ekaterine Street' and swears quite often at the failure of some one to
appear '_along the Levashov_.'"