"It is remarkable that in a country where white lead and rouge were in universal use among ladies, where a woman will not approach a window to beg alms without rouge, where in the very language the word red is an expression of outstanding beauty and where

Mademoiselle Vorontsova, known in marriage as Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, was the closest friend of Catherine the Great, director of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and one of the best-educated women of her time.

Among the unofficial recollections of Dashkova there is an episode about her marriage that shows this universally beloved scholar from a somewhat different side. Once, when Prince Dashkov, one of the most brilliant courtiers, was entertaining the young Katya Vorontsova with flattering talk, she suddenly called out loudly to her uncle and guardian, the State Chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov: "Uncle! Prince Dashkov does me the honour of making me a proposal and asks for my hand." In fact the young man had said nothing of the kind, but, not daring to confess to the first man in the state that the proposal he had made to his niece had been of a rather piquant rather than a matrimonial kind, he was obliged to marry her and make her a princess.

In general the Vorontsov sisters were very interesting personalities. The eldest became Countess Buturlina and, as one of the first Russian women travellers, became famous throughout Europe for her beauty and intelligence. The second, Elizaveta, was the mistress of Peter III and was preparing to ascend the throne after the Emperor's break with Catherine. And the third sister, Ekaterina, became a close friend of the Empress and took an active part in the intrigue against the Emperor.