The meeting was still underway when a maid said to Ferdinand, "Your Majesty, the Queen's call!"
Ferdinand nodded, then rose and walked over, picking up the telephone. "What is it, darling?"
Xenia on the other end said somewhat awkwardly, "There's a private matter I'd like to discuss with you. Would it be convenient for you to come back?"
Ferdinand was somewhat puzzled. "What is it? Is it inconvenient to discuss over the phone?"
Queen Xenia hemmed and hawed. "Mm!"
Ferdinand was even more puzzled, but he did not press further. He simply said, "If it isn't urgent, I'll return to the palace in five or six hours."
Hearing this, Queen Xenia seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "All right!"
Ferdinand turned his attention back to the meeting, while Queen Xenia on the other end began to fret again. The Russian Empire's civil war had been raging for nearly four years. Even the thickest family fortune could not withstand such prolonged battering!
To raise funds, Nicholas II had exhausted every possible means. The treasury had already been emptied during the World War. They had finally won the war and received reparations, only to have to hand them over to Britain and France to repay their debts.
Borrowing money was naturally out of the question. Britain and France wished nothing more than for Russia to remain in chaos; how could they possibly offer him loans?
Had they not made some gains in the United States, Nicholas II's government finances would already have collapsed. Yet even those mere ten-odd million pounds could not last for long!
Because of this war, the Russian Empire was already covered in wounds. Tax revenue was but a drop in the bucket, and in order to win popular support, Nicholas II did not dare raise taxes any