love of home which is more rare than even the striking combination
of qualities just mentioned. She was passionately fond of music, while
Prince Christian was fond of drawing, and these subjects, together with
languages and needle-work and all the essentials of the most simple home
work and management, were taught to the girls who were respectively to
become Empress of Russia, Queen of Great Britain, and Duchess of
Cumberland in after years.

As the years passed on the Princess Alexandra became probably the most
beautiful girl in the Courts of Europe, and one of the least known
outside a limited family circle. When hardly seventeen, and at a period
in which the marriage of the young Prince of Wales was being seriously
thought of by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he chanced to see a
portrait of the Princess. There seems to be no doubt that it was purely
by accident--unless the wise and far-seeing Prince Consort indirectly
controlled the incident--and that the picture of the lovely young girl,
smiling from out of simple surroundings and a simple costume, had an
immediate effect. He kept the photograph, and a little later saw a
miniature of the Princess at the home of a friend. In a surprisingly
short time the Prince had heard that the original of the picture was
"the most beautiful girl in Europe," and was on his way to Prussia to
attend the military manoeuvres of the season. The Crown Prince and
Princess of Denmark happened to be travelling in the vicinity at the
time.

THE PRINCE MEETS PRINCESS ALEXANDRA

On September 24th, 1861, the Prince of Wales and his party met the
Danish Royal party in the Cathedral of Worms, and the former had a first
glance at his future wife. Then followed a few days at the Castle of
Heidelberg, where they were all guests together, and about which a note
in Prince Albert's _Diary_ of September 30th says that "the young people
seem to have taken a warm liking for each other." Less than three months
after this entry the writer had passed away, but the sad event only made
the widowed Queen more anxious for her son's marriage. Further meetings
occurred at the Princess Frederick's--the English Crown Princess--and
elsewhere, and on September 9th, 1862, the betrothal took place;
although it was not publicly announced until November 8th. The Prince
was then just twenty-one and the Princess not yet eighteen, and it was
understood that some months would elapse before the marriage. Meanwhile,
in