number of the presents they had been given, which they had left behind in
order to travel light, had been stolen. ‘We have almost forgotten what we have
lost’, lamented Jessie. ‘I am afraid that the Pankhursts are like Annie and I –
bad at holding on to things – lacking in acquisitiveness.’^27 Waiting for them at
the British Embassy was some small consolation, another food parcel from
England, as well as a copy of Britannia. But although these gifts were very
welcome, the unexpected quietness of the streets of Petrograd, like a calm
before the storm, was disturbing. Professor Masaryk advised Emmeline and Jessie
to leave immediately, before the Bolsheviks gained control; the latter seemed
well informed about the whereabouts of all English visitors and little sympathy
would be shown towards two bourgeois Western women who had been invited
by the Czar and Czarina to visit them.
WAR EMISSARY TO RUSSIA