they had been there, because they were "considered too far Right."

"And to think," said Sir George. "One year ago my Government
instructed me not to receive Miliukov, because he was so dangerously
Left!"

September and October are the worst months of the Russian
year-especially the Petrograd year. Under dull grey skies, in the
shortening days, the rain fell drenching, incessant. The mud
underfoot was deep, slippery and clinging, tracked everywhere by
heavy boots, and worse than usual because of the complete break-down
of the Municipal administration. Bitter damp winds rushed in from the
Gulf of Finland, and the chill fog rolled through the streets. At
night, for motives of economy as well as fear of Zeppelins, the
street-lights were few and far between; in private dwellings and
apartment-houses the electricity was turned on from six o'clock until
midnight, with candles forty cents apiece and little kerosene to be
had. It was dark from three in the afternoon to ten in the morning.
Robberies and housebreakings increased. In apartment houses the men
took turns at all-night guard duty, armed with loaded rifles. This
was under the Provisional Government.

Week by week food became scarcer. The daily allowance of bread fell
from a pound and a half to a pound, then three quarters, half, and a
quarter-pound. Toward the end there was a week without any bread at
all. Sugar one was entitled to at the rate of two pounds a month-if
one could get it at all, which was seldom. A bar of chocolate or a
pound of tasteless candy cost anywhere from seven to ten rubles-at
least a dollar. There was milk for about half the babies in the city;
most hotels and private houses never saw it for months. In the fruit