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Show I Beautiful Queen Marie and Her War Work "You have onlv known me, smiling, I IB in happy days. You will soon see ihr I can be just as calm and linn in i troubled times " I So spoke the queen of Roumania, the I loveliest soerei.c;n in Europe, at the ! outbreak of hostilities. And members j of her entourage are obliged to admit j she has plurkily kept her word i Yet Queen Marie confided to a j friend in Paris the other day that the last two year, had bepn blacker than I ghe had ever imagined. First came the sickness und death of her b". Prin e Mircea, only a few summ s II old. Two d.t after his funeral the II'-1' royal faruih was obliged to flee trom j Prussian fury to Jasy. The evening before their flight Queen Mark pa- ii the saddest moment of her life tin; w, moment when she bade a supreme j 1 farewell to the tiny tomb in the lit church of rotroccnl. j "I tore from me the mask 1 had worn all day." wrote her majesty, ' and if cried out my pain' to the little one that lay under the stones Cruel as was her grief, she roil ro-il fused, however, to give wa to it, do I claring. "This is no moment for my I j I personal sorrow; I must attend to that I j of my people " And most nobly she V remarked that, if Providence had thus stricken her, it was that she might be better able to appreciate and sympa- I thize with hundreds of other sorrow-1 j ing Roumanian mothers. Then came, II m the sad moments at Jassy. with her j beloved soldiers dying in the stre-ls I of hunger and disease, and the only i comfort was the presence of foreign officers at the chalet, whose home i news brought encouragement to the exiled court. But even these were called away when there was talk of peace negotiations with Germany. ; "And their departure removed all the blue from the Roumanian sky," jj said her majesty, referring to the j "blue horizon" of the French soldi r "I saw the last trainload go, and after that we did seem so alone, so sad and disheartened." Awful days followed when, with her eldest daughter at her side and the faithful Russian wollhound at her feet, she watched the shells bursting! wjL all about them. Then came the Jr shameful peace, followed closely by aj bitter family disappointment Prince ( Carol, the apple of his mother's eye j and heir to the throne, skipped into Russia and contracted a monganatic marriage with a pretty young lady far beneath him Nothing remained but to deprive him of his rights of succession, suc-cession, and Prince Nicolas was named heir in his stead. Prince Nicolas, fourth child of the Roumanian sovereigns is much better bet-ter looking than his elder brother, and is said to possess a much more agree-9 agree-9 able disposition He is only 15. On educate him in England, and a iew weeks ago he began serious studies at; Eton. Indeed, it is said to be on hi account that the queen has made h l present journey to England. The fact, however, that she is ac-j companied by three handsome daugh- ters, and there are several marriageable marriage-able princes at the British court, put.s quite another complexion on the matter mat-ter for most people. English people are not backward in expressing the opinion that a granddaughter ol '.'i , late duke of Edinburgh would be a I much more popular bride for Prince, Eddy than a granddaughter oP th id Montenegrin monarch. On finishing al Eton, Prince Nicholas will take aj V course at the military college of St. Cr He is keen on the army and, in 6pite of his youth, accomplished sev-1 eral important feats as a Boy Scout I during the war. One of the proudest moments in' Queen Marie's life was her reeep q al the Academie des Beaux-Arts, ofj which she was made a member somej months ago. She Is an artist to her, finger tips. Had circumstances required, re-quired, she could easily have earned ' i 1 ,-,,-, it)-, j- . . ti rr nnnil A o 11 f li,.r 1 llterarv baggage is not extensive, but she promises much more when life1 becomes normal in Roumania and she can resume her studies. Aside from various contributions to leading French and English periodicals, the queen has signed a charming htlle volume, "My Country," in which she sings the praises of her adopted land, and " Hlldoric." a bright little noel based on one of the crusades, Her talent as a painter Is well known in Paris, where she has exhibited on more than one occasion. But her finest work, that which shows her own personality, is the little lit-tle palace of Cotroceni. This is a gem of architecture. Its plans and every detail ol" the Interior decoration, from the elaborate friezes to the quaintly fashioned door knobs and window fastenings, were most carefully designed de-signed by its royal owner. Even the furniture, with the exception of a few pieces tolerated on account of their apre and beauty, was designed by Queen Marie. In some cases these designs were carved by the king. One of the show rooms of this pal ace Is the gold chamber It boasts a throne of gold with a small golden table bearing many of her majesty's jeweled boxes and rich photograph frames. Then the grand piano has a costly cover of gold cloth richly embroidered em-broidered with Easter lilies. The latter, lat-ter, by the way, are Queen Marie's favorite flowers, and arc always m profusion throughout her palaces. In one of the bedrooms she has painted Hips on all the blue furniture. Then there is the Norwegian room, every detail of which was most cleverly i worked out by the royal artist, where she has arranged a unique collection of jade and Copenhagen porcelains. DUCHESS UE BELL1MERE. Paris, France, March 2n. |