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« on: February 10, 2006, 09:15:43 AM »
I dont think you are thick. Here is the following quotation -
" There were many Balls and I soon got aquainted with all St.Petersburg society. I had a private income of 5.000 roubles a year, and out of this I had to buy all my uniforms, keep two horses, so that was cutting it very fine, but I had no debts so I could just manage. In the autumn I went on leave to Yakshino and hunted with my borzois with the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich next door. Life was very free and I lived very well. Soon I was to meet my second cousin Princess Alexandra Alexeevna Shcherbatoff. She was the most beautiful creation and quite outstanding in every way. Many in St.Petersburg sought her hand but she was quite unattainable, or rather her mother, Aunt Mary Shcherbatoff, nee Stroganov. She had so much influence on her daughter that the latter could decide nothing without her mother's approval. When I saw her for the first time, I saw a being not of this world, before she became charming and attractive. I fell madly in love with her as I had never been in love before. At last I proposed to her and she having consulted ?her mother, told me we would have to wait and that she would let me know later. Soon after she had to go to Nemirovka, their country estate. I was prepared to wait and wait for her answer patiently, and so for a whole year, until her brother, Dima, at last came to me and told me she still couldn't decide and he gave me to understand that I was free to do as I pleased. My circle of friends all told me that nothing would come of it and that they couldn't bear to look at me and how patiently I waited and advised me to forget this crazy scheme, as they called my romance. I was not permitted to write to her, but for me this was a great blow and I suffered terribly ! Sandra was two years older than me and obeyed her mother unquestionably, so it was quite clear that if her mother had found me suitable, so would Sandra have done the same. Apart from myself there were others, for instance Count Olsoufieff, a member of the Government Council and some neighbour landowner of whom Aunt Mary approved, but since Sandra was not in love with them nothing came of those either. During the Revolution, the mother, Sandra and Dima were brutally murdered at Nemirovki. They say that when Princess Maria Gregorievna Shcherbatoff came out of the house to speak to the mutineers together with Sandra, they were murdered on the spot. Dima was hidden by one of the forresters in the woods, but when he was found he suffered the same fate. Sandra was a very special person with very high ideals, but completely under her mother's influence. In addition she was a great beauty and resembled her Great Grandmother Pototzki who was famous for her beauty and her portrait was often painted by all the great masters of her time. After that failure I was very downhearted, but went without stopping to the little house of Peter the Great to pray to God and ask for his guidance. The words of the New Testament especially impressed me "ask and it shall be given unto you, knock and it will open unto you". Then when I decided to ask for Katia Carlow's hand, I used to listen to the priest at mass and I decided that if he mentioned the names Vladimir and Catherine (the founders of the Russian Orthodox Faith) it meant HE had approved my choice ! I seem to remember that the names Vladimir and Alexandra were never mentioned together ! Whereas the names of Vladimir and Catherine I often heard and which gave me a good lead for my new choice and strengthened my purpose. "
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