. Their majesties as I knew them; personal reminiscences of the kings and queens of Europe . , so impenetrable that it excluded thesovereign and a fortiori his official set: thehusband and father alone are admitted. This isthe secret of that close union which has made peoplesay of the Italian royal couple that they representthe perfect type of a middle-class household whichfound its way by accident into a kings palace. I have tried to give a psychological picture ofthe two sovereigns arising from the impressionswhich I picked up in the course of my trip to visit to Paris was destin
. Their majesties as I knew them; personal reminiscences of the kings and queens of Europe . , so impenetrable that it excluded thesovereign and a fortiori his official set: thehusband and father alone are admitted. This isthe secret of that close union which has made peoplesay of the Italian royal couple that they representthe perfect type of a middle-class household whichfound its way by accident into a kings palace. I have tried to give a psychological picture ofthe two sovereigns arising from the impressionswhich I picked up in the course of my trip to visit to Paris was destined to confirm its ac-curacy and to complete its details. 3. I little thought, on the afternoon when I caughtso unexpected a glimpse of Queen Helena in aMilan glove-shop, that, two years later, I was tohave the honour of attending both Her Majestyand the King during their journey to France. Itwas their first visit to Paris in state; and our gov-ernment attached considerable importance to thisevent, which accentuated the scope of what Princevon Billow, at that time chancellor of the German. < H U,O 2 mu DO QZ < 2 Sw XH THE KING AND QUEEN OF ITALY 175 Empire, called, none too good-humouredly, Italyslittle waltz with France. The letter of appointment which I received at thebeginning of October, 1903, directed me to go atonce and await our guests at the Italian frontier andbring them safely to Paris. It was pitch-dark,on a cold, wet night, when the royal train steamedout of the Mont-Cenis tunnel and pulled up at theplatform of the frontier-station of Modany whereI had been pacing up and down for over an curiosity was stimulated, I must confess, by therecollection of the episode in the Galleria VittorioEmmanuele at Milan. Amused by the chancewhich was about to bring me face to face with thelady with the gloves, I was longing to know if myfirst impressions were correct and if the featureswhich I had conjectured, rather than perceived, be-hind the blue veil were really th
Size: 1330px × 1878px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyorksturgiswalt
