12/25 June 1914

Last evening at sunset when the ship’s guns were fired (I have no idea why they do this every evening), I stuck my fingers in my ears and let my tongue loll out of my mouth, as though the sound of the cannon had done me in. Mama hates it when I do this. She says I am unladylike, and that such behaviour is appalling.

After that little bit of nonsense, Mashka and I took a stroll around the deck. She went to our cabin to get a wrap, but I wasn’t at all cold, and continued to wander around by myself. That’s when I saw Tatiana flirting quite madly with Officer Saltikov.

She saw me watching her and demanded to know what I was doing, “skulking about and spying”.

I said I wasn’t skulking or spying, I was simply strolling in the moonlight. Later, when Tatiana came to our cabin, Mashka and I both accused her of flirting outrageously (even though Mashka hadn’t actually seen her and had to take my word for it). Tatiana denied everything, but she did blush the rosiest colour!

I told her that if she could accuse me of skulking and spying, then I could accuse her of flirting. She had no answer to that.