Nadejda and Anastasia Torby were born to a morganatic branch of the Romanov family. They both married into the British aristocracy.
An article about her husband in The Lady's Realm had this about Sophie: "Countess Torby, for whose sake the Grand Duke Michael has submitted to live in exile for so many years past, is a remarkably beautiful woman, tall, with a very fine figure, fair, delicately moulded face, and exquisitely pencilled eyebrows. As Countess Sophie Merenberg, the daughter of the late Prince Nicholas of Nassau, who was morganatically married to a daughter of the poet Pushkin, Countess Torhy, then an exquisitely pretty girl in her teens, met the young Grand Duke, who there and then fell head over heels in love, and in spite of the most deter mined opposition insisted upon making her his wife. It is said that an old fortune-teller whom Countess Sophie and her younger sister, Countess Adda, escaping from the watchful eye of their governess, consulted one day at Wiesbaden, foretold the great marriage in store for the elder of the two girls. The Grand Duke and his beautiful wife make a charming host and hostess both at Keele Hall and at the Villa Kaseheck, where they entertain the éile of Cannes society. They are equally charming as guests when they stay about, as they often do, among their English friends. The Grand Duke likes to be treated very much as all the other guests are treated. A curtsey from the ladies of the party is practically the only indication of his Royal rank, with the exception that he leads the hostess into dinner before the other guests, instead of following last with her, as is usually the custom."
