Some take the view that he is a retired millionaire, judging from the
refined simplicity of his family and the strict guard the Government
has furnished to protect his undisturbed retirement. Others hint that
he may be, possibly, some very high dignitary, judging from the
almost Royal homage that some people in the city pay to his person and
family.

"The only reliable information I got about him was that he arrived
upon the island aboard a man-o'-war accompanied by one of the richest
tea merchants in the Empire. He declines all membership in any of the
clubs, apparently satisfied to spend the time among his orchids and
the lovely white-robed debutantes I saw blooming in that fascinating
garden.

"Naturally I was very curious about the identity of this secluded
family. But the only information given out about them by the
chivalrous tea merchant or the Government officials is simply, 'Oh,
the family have friends in India and are living in retirement.'"

One would be very bold to say, after reading the foregoing, that the
personages described were the same people who had been driven out of
the Winter Palace upon the ebb-tide of their Imperial splendor a
few months before. Yet a long and somewhat intimate interest in the
underground diplomacy of the world will lead one thus engaged to piece
together stray bits of gossip that come from different sources to
check up the information that some others may possess. In this way
will the letter of an American who was held incommunicado at Geneva by
the Swiss Government in the latter part of 1919, be found exceedingly
persuasive in the process of reconstructing the tragic comedy which
struts around the vacant Russian throne. The American was en route to