The Romanov's Third Daughter

The baby soon grew into a good-natured, wholesome little girl, tall for her age, the picture of glowing health and color. Marie had definitely taken after her father's side of the family, and was made of big bones like her grandfather Alexander III. She appeared very stout in comparison to her slender, dainty elder sisters, and her weight was for long the subject of tender concern in the family. Olga and Tatiana teased her about it unmercifully, calling her a "fat little bow-wow" and "our good old fat Tou-Tou." Among other nicknames were "Mashka" -- a common Russian diminutive of her name -- and Mandrifolie, a playfully elegant French variation.

Marie's tastes were very simple, though she was taught to act like a lady in the highest sense of the word since her days as a toddler. In spite of all the hours she spent learning and practicing court etiquette, she remained her sweet, unaffected self, bold and spontaneous, with an innocent curiosity towards everyone she met. She was completely unafraid of new people, very easy to speak with, and her warm heart and good humor never failed to impress. Her English tutor, Sydney Gibbes, remembers her as "the most affectionate and friendly member of the family." Many remarked that to the people she loved, she had the benevolent and somewhat gauche devotion of a dog. Miss Eagar, the children's nanny, remembers Marie during the Tsar's illness with the typhoid:

When he was ill in the Crimea her grief at not seeing him was excessive. I had to keep the door of the day nursery locked or she would have escaped into the corridor and disturbed him with her efforts to get to him. Every evening after tea she sat on the floor just inside the nursery door listening intently for any sounds from his room. If she heard his voice by any chance she would stretch out her little arms, and call "Papa, Papa," and her rapture when she was allowed to see him was great. When the Empress came to see the children on the first evening after the illness had been pronounced typhoid fever, she happened to be wearing a miniature of the Emperor set as a brooch. In the midst of her sobs and tears little Marie caught sight of this; she climbed on the Empress's knee, and covered the pictured face with kisses, and on

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