This morning I telephoned to the Palace and asked for the Crown Prince.
Kameneff asked me if I were right to risk it. He said that I might be
very ill received in view of the company I was in, but I explained that
he was one of the most democratic Princes in Europe.
Prince Gustav’s surprise was indeed pretty great. He was enormously
interested and amused, and asked me to lunch, and to come at midday so
as to get a good talk first.
Kameneff listened to our conversation with some amusement. He told me
afterwards that he liked “the tone.” I wonder whether he had expected me
to be different.
I asked the Prince as a favour that Princess Margaret’s maid, Amy, might
come out shopping with me. She came and fetched me, and was a tremendous
help, as she knew where to take me, and did all the talking in Swedish.
I left her to collect my parcels, as it was nearly midday, got a taxi,
and told him to drive to “The Palace.” He looked vague, and did not
understand. I said: “Palace! Kronprinzen.” He nodded assent and drove
off in a direction that I knew was not towards the Palace. We fetched up
in a street in front of the Kronprinzen Hotel. It was hopeless to
argue--I plunged into the hotel and asked for someone who spoke English
and explained my dilemma, to the intense amusement of the hotel
officials, and of the taxi driver when it was explained to him.
The Prince looked very lonely in those big rooms, and they were
extraordinarily vibrant and reminiscent of _her_. He made me sit down
and tell him all about my plans and my adventure, and fell thoroughly
into the spirit of the thing. He said that I was quite right, if my
exhibition at Agnew’s for October was all organised, not to sacrifice
the chance of this experience on that account. He thought the expedition
a dangerous one, but sensibly admitted that that was my concern and no
one else’s.
He asked me, of course, a number of questions as to what sort of men
Kameneff and Litvinoff were. I could not help being perfectly frank, and
telling him my sincere impressions.
While I was there Kameneff telephoned to say that the Consulate of
Esthonia had given me my visa.
At luncheon, the lady-in-waiting and the A.D.C.’s seemed rather
bewildered. It certainly must have appeared fantastic to them,
accustomed to the dull routine of Court life, to be entertaining someone
who was on the way to Russia with Kameneff to model the heads of Lenin
and Trotsky.
The Prince was overwhelming in his desire to help my material comforts.
He telephoned for biscuits, and two large tins arrived, also cigarettes.
He wrote out his prospective trip, with dates, to Athens and Italy, in
hopes that possibly we may meet if I come back that way.
Finally he escorted me to the taxi that awaited me in the court-yard,
and wished me luck and God-speed.
I returned to the Grand Hotel, and found an alarming crowd of Comrades
lunching with Kameneff in his sitting-room, but we had to leave almost
immediately to catch our boat for Reval.