about ten o'clock
She chatted confidentially with her companion , and more than once cast an inquiring glance in my direction , as though wondering whether I were not an agent of the Okhrana , the ubiquitous secret police of the Empire . It is only too true that wherever one goes in Russia one is `` shadowed '' by the police , and Her Majesty knew full well that the bureau of `` personal police '' at Tsarskoe-Selo would know that she had left the palace and would keep an eye upon her , because just about that period the air was full of plots against the dynasty . The Empress and her bosom friend Mademoiselle Zéneide Kamensky -- whom I afterwards knew her to be -- finished their meal unrecognised by the servants , or any of those in the restaurant , and then returned to their rooms . Afterwards I took a droshky up to the Preobrazhensky Monastery , which I reached about ten o'clock . The old monk who answered my ring at the barred door returned with a message from Rasputin to the effect that I was to tell him the object of my visit . This I refused to do , and became insistent upon seeing him . Such hesitation on Rasputin 's part greatly surprised me .