He does not think that any act of his can be
wrong; the mere fact that HE ran counter to accepted standards
divests, in his mind, the act itself of turpitude. That seems to be
the way he looked upon his former Eastern encrouchments. That's the
way he justified his subterranean deals with the KAISER; and he even
goes so far as to assert that '_if the Vyborg-Bjoerkesund treaty had
not been denounced the present war would not have happened_.' He
speaks of this a little passionately, scorning the very memory of
Count Witte for 'questioning the morality of that arrangement.'
That great Minister my prisoner refers to as '_an uncouth bully who
bellowed like a mad bull_.' In this respect it is my impression that
the ex-Empress indorses his state of mind. What he likes she will
place in the superlative; what he merely hates, _she_ elevates to
positive abhorrence. In this way she seems to flatter his decisions,
which makes him smile quite indulgently at her, and hold her
ascendency over his apparently veering mind. I can notice this in so
many little things: She oozes delicate flattery and he likes it;
she plays upon his _prejudices_, and he seems to have a lot of them
submerged beneath his inalienable urbanity and instinctive grace of
manner that even this misery and abysmal gloom have not relieved of
polish. Beneath it all I get the impression that he is very much in
love with every member of his family.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74