Has any one else noticed how she always talks about him:
“…had kind gray-brown eyes, with a dreamy, searching expression and a shy smile upon red lips that seemed to have been shaped for soft words only.”
“he has the same dreamy, soft eyes, the same gentle lips, I knew when I was a child, those lips shaped for kind words only.”
“Nicky we always loved and admired, although, being older, he was rather beyond our reach in those days. Already, at that early age, he had that gentle charm and that kind, caressing look in his eyes, which was his all through life till the day of his tragic death.”
“My eyes sought the Emperor, Nicky, dear to us all. He was not one of the giants, but the gentleness of his expression made him infinitely sympathetic; something seemed to melt in one's heart when one looked at him, at his soft hazel eyes, at his gentle lips, when one watched his quiet movements, listened to his soft, low-toned voice.”
“The Czar was the same gentle, rather timid man I had always known, with the dreamy gray-brown eyes and those soft lips that seemed formed for kind words only…”
“I was sad to say good-bye to Nicky; a unique and not easily definable charm emanated from this quiet, almost inconspicuous little man who was the last Tsar of all the Russias. I can never think of him without emotion; he deserved a better fate.”
“Nicky was charming as ever, and I found myself continually watching him and again it struck me how very lovable he was with his low voice and gentle eyes; how little did I imagine then that we would never meet again.”
“I cannot read that ultimate message received from the quiet, gentle cousin for whom I had always felt such sympathy without deep emotion and that last sentence: ‘May God grant you final victory and the fulfillment of all your hopes’ has a quiet bigness about it. He was losing everything, his every hope had crumbled, but in a last cry of friendship he wishes for us a better fate. May God rest his soul in peace.”
“The Emperor Nicolas was lovable, utterly lovable…”
(the next is written in her diary right after his death)
“As I stood in the small, unadorned church whilst the humble village priest was performing the prescribed rites, I deeply pondered over your life, all the past glory, the tragic end… I remembered… my childhood impression… I saw again your gentle face. I had a vision of your riding into Moscow for your coronation, a quite young man surrounded by all the pomp and glory of the world, I saw you at Tsarskoe with your children, at Constanta the last time we met.
“Dear Nicky, I loved you sincerely. Our little memorial was celebrated without pomp, but it is not pomp you need to-day but hearts which can understand you and mourn for your cruel end. My thoughts go out to you in loving remembrance; may the great belief you had in God have been with you to the very end!”
