THE FOUR GRAND-DUCHESSES (LEFT TO RIGHT: ANASTASIE, OLGA, TATIANA, AND MARIE). STANDARD, 1914.
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polite though they were, of those about him. Thanks to the fact that this little trip had been quite impromptu, he had even dodged the vigilant care of the palace police, a thing he felt was always about him (though this duty was performed in the discreetest possible manner), and hated thoroughly. For once, at any rate, he had been able to live like an ordinary mortal. He seemed rested and relieved.
In ordinary times the Czar did not see much of his children. His work and the demands of Court life prevented him from giving them as much time as he would have wished. He had handed over their bringing-up entirely to the Czarina, and in the short time he spent with them in family intimacy he liked to enjoy their company without restraint and with a mind free from all cares. At such times he wanted to be free of the immense burden of responsibility upon his shoulders. He wanted to be simply the father and forget that he was the Czar.
Nothing of any importance occurred to break the monotony of our life during the following weeks.
About the end of May there were rumours at Court that the Grand-Duchess Olga Nicolaïevna was about to be betrothed to Prince Carol of Rumania.[18] She was then eighteen and a half. The parents on both sides seemed in favour of the match, which was very desirable at that moment on political grounds also. I knew that M. Sazonoff, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, was doing his utmost to bring about the betrothal and that the final arrangements were to be made during a visit which the Russian Imperial family were to pay to Rumania in the immediate future.
One day at the beginning of June when I was alone with Olga Nicolaïevna she suddenly asked me a question with that confident and disingenuous frankness which was all her own and the legacy of the relations which had been established between us when she was quite a little girl:
“Tell me the truth, monsieur: do you know why we are going to Rumania?”
In some confusion I replied: