Princess Louise of Prussia in Baden, and everyone spoke with affectionate pride of their grand duke and duchess in Constance, where the couple had a summer residence. Louise was a great friend of Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, her sister-in-law's younger sister; i.e., Alice was the sister of Victoria, Louise's brother Frederick's wife, both sisters being daughters of Queen Victoria. The two often visited each other. In Queen Victoria's letters, she and Frederick were always referred to with pleasure or sympathy as "good Fritz and Louise of Baden". Though friends as young girls, Louise and her sister-in-law Victoria, Princess Royal ("Vicky") always had a
Princess Helena of the United Kingdom on earth, his word was a most sacred law, and he was my help and adviser ... These hours were the happiest of my life, and now it is all, all over." The Queen relied on her second eldest daughter Princess Alice as an unofficial secretary, but Alice needed an assistant of her own. Though Helena was the next eldest, she was considered unreliable by Victoria because of her inability to go long without bursting into tears. Therefore, Louise was selected to assume the role in her place. Alice was married to Prince Louis of Hesse in 1862, after which