BULGARIA: Count Rilski Abroad

Without fuss or pother a dark, good-looking man, accompanied by three attendants, boarded the Orient Express at Sofia, Bulgarian capital (TIME, Aug. 8). Next morning newspapers announced in Slavic, King Boris had departed on vacation. Not a word of his destination escaped.

Aboard the speeding rapide there was no one who would answer to the title of king; but a well-dressed man by the name of Count Rilski was known to be none other than the Tsar of the Bulgars.

Across Europe he sped.

Meantime, rumors spread. The lonely bachelor monarch was again looking for a mate to share his throne. And busybodies—imperious dowagers, pseudo-diplomats, plain tittle-tattlers—began guessing, as they do each year that Boris takes a few days off, as to whom he might choose as his Queen. Names of all the probable and improbable princesses were pondered; the political effects of a dozen possible liasons were dis-cussed and expanded to absurd proportions. But to no avail.

Across the English Channel went Boris.

A murmur of “I told you so,” went up. Boris was looking for an English girl of aristocratic parentage, of which there were scores eligible. But those who knew smiled, recalled the young King’s sentiments not long ago expressed: “Bulgaria cannot afford a Queen. I sometimes wonder if she can afford a King.”*

Unheralded, Count Rilski arrived in London, took the famed Scottish Express north. At Balmoral, Scottish home of King George† and Queen Mary, he descended from the carriage, again King Boris of Bulgaria. For the first time since the War, the British sovereigns entertained the monarch of a onetime enemy state.

Two days later, after some good grouse shooting over Scottish moors, King Boris became Count Rilski, returned to London. Arriving there, he took a taxi to his hotel, paid a visit to the legation, which did not even know that he was in England. Then it became known that the incognito monarch was much more interested in collecting butterflies for his remarkable collection in Sofia—a collection given to him by “Foxy” Ferdinand, onetime (1908-18) King of Bulgaria—than he was in discovering a royal bride. And next in his interests were motor cars and steam locomotives, of both of which he is an able driver.

*As salary King Boris gets the unprincely sum of approximately $13,500, with an additional $93,735 for maintenance of the palaces.

†King Boris is a third cousin of King George, both being descendants of the House of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha. Technically the British Royal House is named Windsor, but genealogically it is the same as that of Bulgaria i. e.. Saxe-Coburg und Gotha,