The driver of your drosky will point it out to you." "Is his Excellency in Helsingfors at the present moment ?" I asked.
"The Baron never leaves the Palace, m'sieur," responded the man.

"This is a strange country, you know," he added, with a grin.

"It is said that his Excellency is in hourly fear of assassination." "Perhaps not without cause," I remarked in a low voice, at which he elevated his shoulders and smiled.
At noon I descended from a drosky before a long, gray, massive building, over the big doorway of which was a large escutcheon bearing the Russian arms emblazoned in gold, and on entering where a sentry stood on either side, a colossal concierge in livery of bright blue and gold came forward to meet me, asking in Russian: "Whom do you wish to see ?" "His Excellency, the Governor-General." "Have you an appointment ?" "No." "His Excellency sees no one without an appointment," the man told me somewhat gruffly.
"I am not here on public business, but upon a private matter," I explained.

"Perhaps I may see his Excellency's secretary ?" "If you wish, but I repeat that his Excellency sees no one without a previous appointment." I knew this quite well, for the "Strangler of Finland," fearful of assassination, was as unapproachable as the Czar himself.

Following the directions of the concierge, however, I crossed a great bare courtyard, and, ascending a wide stone staircase, was confronted by a servant, who, on hearing my inquiry took me into a waiting-room, and left with my card to Colonel Luganski, whom he informed me was the Baron's private secretary.
After ten minutes or so the man returned, saying: "The Colonel will see you if you will please step this way," and following him he conducted me into the richly furnished private apartments of the Palace, across a great hall filled with fine paintings, and then up a long thickly-carpeted passage to a small, elegant room, where a tall bald-headed man in military uniform stood awaiting me.
"Your name is M'sieur Gregg," he exclaimed in very good French, "and I understand you desire audience of his Excellency, the Governor-General.
I regret, however, that he never gives audience to strangers." "The matter upon which I desire to see his Excellency is of a purely private and confidential nature," I said, for used as I was to the ways of foreign officialdom, I spoke with the same firm courtesy as himself.
"I am very sorry, m'sieur, but I fear it will be necessary in that case for you to write to his Excellency, and mark your letter 'personal.' It will then go into the Governor-General's own hands." "What I have to say cannot be committed to writing," was my reply.