She was amused and intrigued to receive a letter sent by the Empress Alexandra on behalf of the Imperial family. It contained a most sympathetic reference to her ‘accident’ with best wishes for a speedy return to health, and concluded with felicitations on her engagement to Colonel Kirby. Resting in silken-limbed convalescence on a couch, she handed the letter, written on embossed Imperial notepaper, to Kirby. ‘From your most high friends,’ she said, ‘and that is an exquisite embellishment of the joke, isn’t it?’ He read the letter, then said, ‘An Imperial embellishment.’ Aleka did not seem further interested in it, so he slipped the letter casually into his pocket. It had been happily signed by all of them and it was something to have from the family he loved. Aleka was paler than usual by reason of her time in hospital and had made up her mind to go to Karinshka to find the sunshine and warmth of the Crimean spring. She was satisfied with the state of the nation. It was growling and discordant, the workers underpaid, restless and mutinous.
