To-day the Grand Duke Nicolay Mikhailovitch was at Tolstoi's, evidently
a very clever man. His behaviour is very modest; he talks little.
He has sympathetic eyes and a fine figure, quiet gestures. Leo
Nicolayevitch smiled caressingly at him, and spoke now French, now
English. In Russian he said:--
"Karamzin wrote for the Tsar, Soloviov long and tediously, and
Klutchevsky for his own amusement. Cunning fellow Klutchevsky: at first
you get the impression that he is praising, but as you read on, you see
that he is blaming."
Someone mentioned Zabielin.
"He's nice. An amateur collector, he collects everything, whether it is
useful or not. He describes food as if he had never had a square meal;
but he is very, very amusing."