need any such jewelry to have all the spendthrifts of Europe at her
feet.... If she was a 'Princess' then I was completely fooled....
I never saw a real Princess, except _Eulalia_, who knew how to be
democratic enough to select an American for a quiet exchange of ideas
... the rest, no matter how desperately they may want to be free from
Court _restraint_ and bodyguards, remind me of the poor little caged
girls at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Seville!... Well, so
my captors have some connection with the Countess C----([Cszecheny]
Chechany)--with the Tolna Festetics of Hungary.... And this is
_strange_, for I had surmised that SHE, at least, would be _friendly_
to MY mission, if she knows anything at all about its origin.... _She_
should _aid_ me to reach Odessa instead of having me sandbagged and
cooped up here in this Soviet cage.... I'm certain this Métropole lady
is a TRAITOR to the Countess now, and will have me murdered if I don't
produce that sapphire of the princess."

15. This entry may serve to identify the author of the diary:

"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