The Washington herald., 1920-04-11

WEN before the war European court cir
cles had discussed the question Of the
7arriaee Of the eldest daushter Of the hing
and queen Of Rumania, the Princess Elisa
Seth. It was said that one Of the wishes
Of her great uncle and aunt, King Carol and
Hseen Elisabeth of Rumania, had been to
3e her well settled in life.
She was . very beautiful gffl, with tenn
- of her own, and q serious. perhaps even,
-1stere turn Of mind, and she had never
Seen able to quite agree with her own mother,
Che crown princess, afterward Queen Marie.
The latter was q charming, fascinating
woman, who liked to be admired and loved,
and who, in those early days I am talking
about, had not developed the beautiful char
lcter she was to become later on. Her
laughter was different from her, both
physically and tsmperamentaliy, being tall
I'D well built, and perhaps somewhat mas
Ie in her figure as well as in her strongly
-Ocentuated features, while the queen was
Eight and Of middle height, with most
Graceful movements and the sweetest Of
-2iles.
The Princess Elizabeth had disdainful
mouth and her lips seldom lost their severe
expression. She appeared to be looking down
at the world from her own high position and
Incorporating principles: she seemed to
Ae continually sitting in Judgment on all
hose with whom she did not agree. And In
lis she was entirely the opposite of her
wely mother.
At the same time, her practical turn Of
nnd had brought her nearer to the real
"ferings of the world than Queen Marie,
Tho at that time could cry with sorely
tricken people, clasp their hands and shower
upon them her sympathy, but who did not
know how to ease their sufferings or how 10
-1ieve their misery otherwise than By ex-
pressing in words the share she took In
them. Princess Elizabeth had been almost
constantly, during her childhood, with her
great-aunt, the consort of King Carol, and
she had watched the charitable efforts Of the
latter, who came to the help Of the poorer
classes of the Rumanian people. She had
been her right hand in all these undertakings.
When the old queen died her niece ex-
perienced the greatest sorrow Of her life.
QUEEN MARIE had not been eager to
" introduce her eldest daughter into so.
ciety, and Elizabeth had never appeared at
any of the court festivities, which were heid
in the royal palace of Bucharest, until d.
was nineteen years old. The war, which
began at about that time, put an end to her
worldly life, perhaps to her own secret re.
lief. because the young princess cared very
little for the gay world. What she would
have preferred to everything else would have
been to enter into possession Of q home of her
own, where she could have done what she
liked and spent her time in occupations which
were denied to her in her parents house.
Of course, she had had more than one pre-.
tender to her hand, snd before even she was
regularly "out" the astute King Ferdinand
Of Bulgaria had caused hints to be conveyed
to the court Of Bucharest that both he and
the Bulgarian nation would like to welcome
the Princess Elizabeth as the future queen OF
that realm. But these hints did not appeal
in the very least to the girl concerned, nor to
her father and mother, though for different
reasons. The latter thought their daughter
too young to marry. The princess herself
had already lost her heart to another.
The thing had happened quite Unexpectedly
during a summer sojourn of the then crown
princess of Rumania with her relatives at
Coburg. There had come on q visit to his
aunt, the widowed Duchess of Coburg, who
had been before her marriage the Grand
Duchess Marie Alexandrowna of Russia,
her nephew by alliance, Prince George Of
Sparta, the son and heir of King Constan-
tin of the Hellenes. He was an attractive
young man, with a pleasant, open counte-
nance, and he became at once the admirer
of the young Princess Elizabeth, who had
accompanied her mother to Germany. She
felt from the first moment a great sympa-
thy for him, and one afternoon, during an
excursion in which the prince had been in
vited to accompany his aunt and her guests,
he found himself for a few moments alone
With Elizabeth and made the best Of this
unexpected opportunity by asking her 70
become his wife.
At first it would have seemed as II such
marriage could only meet with approval
from everybody. The young people were
eminently well suited to each other, and
even from the political point of view this
alliance could only be conducive to the pros
perity of Greece as well as of Rumania. The
latter country would undoubtedly have liked
to see one of its princesses share the throne
of Greece, while the Hellenic kingdom
would have derived Q considerable advantage
from a match that would have put IN end
to certain animosities which It had cherished
since the Balkan war against the Rumanian
Government, when the Greeks had been
accused Of not having played fairly during
the diplomatical negotiations that culminatsd
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