This is from the memoirs of Sergei Witte who watched as the royals disembarked from the royal train which carried the body of Alexander III to St. Petersburg:
"Emperor Nichaolas II, still a young man, left the train, followed by two women. Naturally, I was eager to see our future Empress, whom I had never seen before, and mistakenly thought the prettier of the two was she. I was astonished when I was told that the prettier one was her aunt, Princess Alexandra, wife of Edward, Prince of Wales. The young lady who turned out to be our future Empress seemed not only less good-looking , but also less sympathetic than her aunt. Of course, she too was pretty then, and still is, but her mouth always seems to be set in anger."
King, Kaiser, Tsar, p. 167.
I was struck by the similarity to this passage and an essay by Queen Marie of Romania, a cousin of Alexandra's. Marie thought Alexandra, going to her coronation as Nicholas's consort, looked angry at the world also, that she did not look as if she was embracing a new and glorious future but seemed to look as if she was going into battle. It is sad that, from the very start, Alexandra was ill-suited to be Empress and a very public figure.