Page 1 Advertisements Column 2

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 14 October 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

One of the loveliest, women in the Russian Court is the Grand Duchess Serge, who in the lifetime of Queen Victoria used frequently to be in England ; for. after llhj death of her daughter, the Princess Alice, Grand Duchess "of Hesse, our late Sovereign quite mothered her four orphaned grand-daughters, superintending their education herself. Princess Elizabeth, the second sister, was married in 1834 to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Serge, the Uncle of the present Czar. She is exceedingly fond of her sister, the Czarina, who is twelve years her junior: ami ib has been frequently stated—with how much truth it is impossible foi us to say—that the Grand Duchess Serge was largely responsible for the match between pretty Princess Alix and the Ruler of All the Russias. One result of that match is very curious. By it the Grand Duchess has become sister-in-law to her nephew by marriage, and therefore aunt by marriage tc her own sister. These complications make no difference to the pleasure the two sisters have in each other's society, and the i childless Grand Duchess is devotedly attached to the Czarina's four pretty and charming little daughters.