Actually,
The friend she lived with in Buenos Aires was my Tante Lilly. They were partners in the cosmetics firm. Her daughter, Odette, told me that all the servants were required to address her formally, as was Odette, and that Odette lived in fear of Maria, as she was cold, aloof and demanding. Now, Tante Lilly had a different side of her to tell me about, and was devoted to her.
Dear Rob,
Yes, I stand corrected It was a cosmetics firm. If you can though, please check with Mme Odette. I could swear that they also made beautiful day-dresses on a "haute couture" basis for the ladies of Buenos Aires and that the business alone was not cosmetics. This is one instance where I really wish that my mother were still alive. I am sure that she could testify to this fact. She may have owned one. Or perhaps I am in error.
Dear Tante Lilly would have benefitted from years and years of personal relationship with the Grand Duchess, and do not forget, but in regards to her station in life, Tante Lilly would not have been regarded as inferior by the Grand Duchess. Not at all. Of that I can assure you and I am sure you are aware of that anyway. Both were Ancien Regime. Both came from good families. And there is one point Rob, that you perhaps you should consider.
What is Tante Lilly's bloodline? I say this for a reason. The Romanovs were relatively newcomers to the Great Families of Russia. They were boiarii. They were still barbarians when the fortunes and good names of the other good families had been settled. There was of course, court precedence, as settled by Peter the Great in the Table of Ranks, created a la Louis XIV, to firmly establish the Romanov dynasty. But nonetheless, there was also primacy and supremacy of bloodline. Even in the Emigration, these distinctions remained clear. For example, a Trubetzkoy or an Obolensky or a Galitzine or a Sherbatov did not have to compete with the Romanovs. There was no competition between a Rurikii and a Romanovii. That was a foregone conclusion. And I write all of this to urge you, if you can and if it is possible, to consider Tante Lilly's bloodline. That also allowed a degree of intimacy with Maria Pavlovna. These are distinctions and matters that are no longer considered but they were decidedly considered then.
Rob, I side with you here. The Grand Duchess was not a book figure to us, but a living person. She was indeed referred to as "Vuestra Alteza". People indeed did have to curtsy to her upon entering and leaving the room. She arrived last at all Church services, for example, and she left first. She imposed this. She venerated the Holy Cross first at the end of the services. When she was given communion, she was NOT given communion as is the Orthodox custom by "the servant of God Maria", she was communied "as the Great Princess Maria Pavlovna" according to Imperial tradition. She insisted. She was NOT given "abrazos" and did not take to being touched.
I am sorry that Mme Odette has been disparaged elsewhere here. It pains me. As to the report by the Argentine newspaper reporter, it was for an Argentine newspaper that was regarded as a one of the worst Buenos Aires muckraking scandal sheets, full of lies, and lies, and lies, and whose reporters spent time in jail under the Peron regime for seditious behaviour, and for "outrage to public order and Argentine morals". Odette is not discredited here at all, but this particular reporter and his newspaper are. Eventually, it was shut down entirely. It is very important that when we cite cites, we present the entire picture. Consider both the source and the reporter. One cannot stand without the other. Would you cite an article from The Daily Enquirer or from Scandals of Our Times? Please. And again, it is HIGHLY unlikely that Mme Odette, a woman also of breeding and good morals, would make such statements. People of that class of people just did not do things like that.
Next, indeed Rob, you are entirely correct. With the exception of your Tante Lilly, the Argentines considered the Grand Duchess a "sagrado terror". More than aloof, exceptionally politely demanding, formal to a degree that even surprised the Argentines with their inherited 19th century Spanish formality. She was treated with great deference by the emigre community in Buenos Aires, particularly the community gathered around the Holy Trinity Cathedral on Parque Lezama in Barrio San Telmo, but she was not beloved. There was notable event at which she insisted that she would arrive at the Opening Night of the Teatro Colon (the wonderful old Buenos Aires Opera House where Caruso and Tetrazzini sang) after the President of the Republic, meaning last. It didn't fly. So she didn't go much to Opening Nights after that.
With all the best dear, Rob, and I hope you can perhaps give us some information on Tante Lilly's bloodline.
With all of the best,
A.A.
