The Grand Duke Vladimir was wont to call the Grand Duchess Marie “The Amiable Baby,” and from all accounts she is more like what her mother was in babyhood than any of the children. Between her and her older sister Olga is a world of difference. If half the stories about her are true she is indeed the personification of sweetness and unselfishness. Whooping cough attacked the whole nursery one spring. Curiously enough the Empress came down first and it quickly spread to all of the children. Even the nurses caught it. One day one of the nurses was holding the baby, Anastasie, on her lap. The little thing was coughing and choking toward the whoop of relief when Marie ran up close to her, and putting her face close up to her little sister’s said: “Baby, darling, cough on me.” The nurse asked her why she desired that and she answered: “I am so sorry to see my dear little sister so ill, and I thought if I could take it from her she would be better.” A charmingly generous impulse, surely!
Marie is so frequently held up as a model and an example to the other three sisters that she has been{194} nicknamed the “stepsister.” Her amiability and sweetness are so marked that her sisters are ready to admit that she cannot be more than half one of them!
There is a pretty little story current of a nursery incident which occurred one afternoon when the little Grand Duchesses were playing house by piling up chairs. The other sisters entered into a conspiracy against Marie. “You were to be the footman and wait outside,” they told her. Marie was quite willing to be footman, but she protested against leaving the nursery and standing all by herself in the hall. But the others pushed her out and it looked as if poor little Marie would have to submit. Suddenly she dashed into the nursery, her arms filled with toys and dolls’ dresses. Rushing up to her sisters she dealt each a slap and cried out: “I’ll not be a footman. I’ll be the kind, good aunt who brings presents to the children.”
She then proceeded to distribute her gifts, kissed each of her “nieces” and sat down. The other children looked sheepishly at one another, and at last Tatiana said: “We are too cruel to poor little Marie, she really couldn’t help whipping us.” And after that Marie played with the others in the nursery.
The children are frequently admitted to where their parents are at tea time, but they are not supposed to touch any of the cakes that are served to the older people. It is difficult to prevent this{195} always, for like all children, they want to sample the good things they see.
One day, when no one was noticing Marie particularly, she helped herself to some cake and began to gobble it down as fast as she could. With her mouth still full, she looked up at the nurse who came to take her and said: “Dere! I’ve eaten it all up. You tant det it now.”
The Empress felt that Marie should be punished for this, so nurse was told to take her off to bed. But the Emperor intervened, saying that he had always feared Marie would be growing wings and he was glad to see that she was only a human child after all!
I remember one occasion when the Tsaritsa was covered with confusion by the little Grand Duchess Tatiana. The Crown Prince of Siam was visiting St. Petersburg and during part of his stay, he was a guest of the Emperor and Empress, who were then occupying the Winter Palace. The dusky Prince went to pay his respects to the nursery. The Empress herself accompanied him to present the children.
On the way they met Tatiana and the Empress called to her second daughter: “Come, Tatiana, and shake hands with this gentleman.” Tatiana held off shyly, looking askance and with manifest disapproval upon the brown-skinned potentate from Siam. At last she exclaimed: “That is not a gentleman, mamma; that’s a monkey!”
The Empress flushed with mortification and re{196}torted: “You are a monkey yourself, Tatiana.” The Prince laughed heartily at the incident and before the end of the visit of his Imperial Highness to Petersburg, he and Tatiana became fast friends.
Tatiana has always been a bright child, with an amusing, alert mind. One day she and her English governess were walking in the garden of the Winter Palace, when one of the Emperor’s beautiful great collie dogs came bounding along the path behind them. With a puppy-like caprice the dog jumped on Tatiana’s back and threw her down. As the little Grand Duchess clambered to her feet, the dog gamboled off down the path in a mad frolic with another dog. Tatiana was not hurt, but considerably frightened, and after gazing after the dogs for a moment in silence, great salt tears began to drop down her cheeks. The governess tried to comfort her by saying “Poor Sheilka, she did not mean to hurt you; she only wanted to say ‘good morning’ to you.”
Tatiana looked up at her governess and quickly replied: “Was that all? Then I don’t think she is very polite; she should have said it to my face, not to my back.”
The Grand Duchess Tatiana is one of the sweetest of children. One day when she was being got ready to go out, the governess went to get her coat to go with them. When she returned, the nurse, Mary, was shaking Tatiana. “How dare you shake Tatiana?” Miss Eager exclaimed. “You are paid to take care of her,—not to correct her.” “She is{197} paid?” said Tatiana in surprise. “Yes,” the governess replied, “She is paid and I, also, am paid,” at which Tatiana put her head on the shoulder of the governess and cried. “You have seen me get my money every month,” said the governess. “I always thought it was a present to you,” the child said. The governess then explained that it was necessary that she be paid, as she had no money of her own and that her way of earning money was looking after the Royal children. The next morning when the governess awoke, Tatiana was standing by her bedside and she said, “May I get into your bed?” As the little Grand Duchess cuddled down in the arms of her governess, she exclaimed, “Anyway, you are not paid for this.”
Another day, as the Royal nursery was going to the beach at Livadia after a terrible storm, the Grand Duchess Olga picked up a little dead bird which had fallen on the grass and said, “I will keep this poor, little bird forever.” The governess did not interfere but watched Olga carry it, followed by Tatiana who was sympathetically interested. The governess wondered how long the children would carry this bird before getting tired of it. Presently, Olga said, “Perhaps I am doing wrong to take this little bird away because even at this moment, God may have sent an angel for the bird and what if it is not there? I am going to put it back.” Whereupon, she retraced her steps to the spot where she had found it. The next day they were going to the beach again and they took the{198} same path as on the previous day in order to look for the bird. When they arrived at the spot where Olga had found and replaced it, the bird was gone. “Suppose we had taken it away!” said Olga. “Then God’s angel could not have found it.” “Oh,” replied Tatiana, “I think it would have been perfectly lovely if He had taken it out of our hands!”
Anastasie has always enjoyed the reputation of being the most mischievous of all the children. One year, when the Dowager Empress was about to celebrate her birthday, all of the Imperial children ............