"Alexandra's childhood in the little court at Darmstadt,
her training under the strict Victorian standards of Windsor,
had not prepared her for the gay, loose society of St.Petersburg.
She was shocked by the all-night parties,
the flaunted love-affairs, the malicious gossip.
Many people in St.Petersburg society quickly dismissed
the young empress as a prude and a bore.
There is a story that at one of her first court balls
she saw a young woman dancing whose décolletage she considered too low.
One of her ladies-in-waiting was sent to tell the offender :
"Madame, Her Majesty wants me to tell you
that in Hesse-Darmstadt we don't wear our dresses that way".
Really ? the young woman is said to have replied,
at the same time pulling the front of her dress still lower.
Pray tell her Majesty that in Russia we do wear our dresses this way". (p.72)