The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-04-18

VolOpeQ between Lnem. I19re
we're clandestine meetings and the, roval girl con.
cealed in her bosom a diamond pendant which
the young prince had given her. The revelation
of her infatuation to the car and czarina precipi-
tated several fearful scenes. The grand duchess
stamped her foot like any common girl. She
would not be sacrificed as a wife for any pin
headed princely ~weakling. She would marry the
man of her choice.
The car is said to have at last consented. 1t
was decided that the betrothal be published to
the world.
And then the Grand Duchess Olga had the
rudest shock that ever came to any young prin.
cess of the blood. Prince Dimitri confessed that
he loved her sister Titiana more than Olga!
Where Olga is stately, Titiana is irresistibly at
~tractive. Where the elder sister is magnificent,
imperial, capable of gracing a throne, the second
daughter is winsome, magnetic, capable of be-
coming a great actress and taking captive the
heart of a nation with her magic smile.
If there had been turmoil in the cars house
hold before, it was as. nothing compared to the
storm how. The czarina, always neurasthenic
from the many nameless terrors that surround
her family, collapsed completely and retired to
her beautiful retreat in the Crimea. The prince
who was the cause of the trouble left the country.
His exile was complete-absolute He seems now
to have been shut out of the list of ~eligibles en-
tirely.
This list Of eligibles is not a long one and the
daughters of the car have a way of turning up
their pretty noses at almost every name on 1t,
leading the list is the young prince of Wales, a
schoolboy, thin faced, weakly, given to overmuch
cigarette smoking, perhaps too greatly coddled
by a foolish mother. Accustomed to the virile, if
dissipated, society of st. Petersburg, the grand
duchesses are not SO much impressed by the Brit
ish heir apparent. He is said to admire much
the beautiful Titiana, but the reports that the
affection is mutual are not well borne out.
The second most eligible young man from the
point of rank and station is Adalbert, third son
of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
He is stocky, rugged, far removed in appearance
from the prince of Wales. Royal parents have
thrown him and the q~uartette of imperial girls to-
gether. But nothing has happened.
In the olden days nothing was expected to
happen. Rather, it made no difference. But times
have changed. The royal girl demands her ro-
nance. She will not be cheated out of her need
of love and affection. She has read the romantic
novel and she knows what is her due of love and
affection as a woman. She demands to marry the
man she loves. She will not take this one or that
one to please her fathers prime minister.
This changed attitude of the royal young lady
seems to have been the stone wall on which the
plan for sealing the Balkan peace by royal match
making was shattered.
Last autumn there was much indignation, and
Just indignation, over the pitiless plan by which
the diplomats intended to mate up the young folks
of a stern European royalty.
In the, first place, Olga was to be married to
Prince Alexander of Servia, the heir apparent TO
a throne stained with blood. 1t will be emem-
bered that King Peter, Alexander's father, took
this throne from assassins who killed King Alex
ander and Queen Draga, and even tore the latter
to pieces and cast the remnants of her body out
of her bedroom window. Prince Alexanders
elder brother, George, committed many horrible
crimes, including the murder of the husband of
his mistress, and was shut out from the line OF
succession. Alexander is said to be little better,
a sot and a debauchee. The court at Belgrade is
rude and barbarous. Olga's fate in such a union
might we'll be pitied.
Then Titiana, she of the ~witching eyes, was to
be wed to Prince Charles OF Roumania. He is
the oldest son of the crown prince of Roumania,
who is the nephew Of the aged king and queen
Roumania is slightly more civilized than Servia,
but the Roumsnians seized some of Bulgaria's
spoils of war recently and the fierce Bulgarians