RUMANIA: Pained

“I am pained and indignant that it is possible for anyone to spread such idiotic and calumnious tales,” said the Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania, scotching a report that Princess Ileana, her youngest daughter, had eloped with a married but fascinatingly handsome naval lieutenant and, balked, had tried to commit suicide.

“Since King Ferdinands death,” Her Majesty went on, “Ileana had never left my side. . . . Her earnest sense of duty and love for me are a guarantee that she will always be the pride of her country and the royal family.”

Princess Ileana will be 19 years old on Jan. 5. Pointing out that she is a plain, jolly girl, those who know her were emphatic in disbelieving the story of her elopment with the young naval officer. They said that, intellectually inclined, she is much more interested in reading U. S. and British books and magazines, in search for ideas, and was the last girl in the world to lose her head in such temperamental fashion. Finally, they were unanimous in flaying the gossip mongers who had so flagrantly circulated what they termed “purient nonsense.”

The scurrilous story had it that the love affair began last summer. The strong-willed “mother-in-law of the Balkans,” Queen Marie, discovered it and Ileana’s “cherub,” one Paius, was sent posthaste back to his ship in the Black Sea.

Enlisting the help of her brother, Prince Nicholas, the tale goes on, Ileana met her sweetheart at the coast and the two set out in an open motor boat for Constantinople, but, wrecked, were rescued by a German boat. For this episode Paius was arrested.

Free again, the love-mad young lad fled with his bien aimee to Bulgaria, whence the runaway Princess was brought back to Bucharest under strong guard at the request of Queen Marie, who drove through the streets with her to still the rumors of her elopment. After this Princess Ileana is supposed to have tried to kill herself (means unspecified).