Holiday

For perhaps the first time since the ascension of Tsar Boris III (1918), His Majesty managed to slip out of Sofia last week en route for Switzerland before rumors could be started that he went in search of a bride. Year after year correspondents have cried "Wolf! Wolf!" to the effect that he was going to marry this princess or that, whenever Bachelor Tsar Boris has set out for his annual vacation (TIME, July 26, 1926, et ante). This year the Tsar resolved to outwit rumor mongers.

Shrewd, he delayed his vacation beyond the usual date, allowing an impression to seep out that he would not leave Sofia this summer. Then, without warning, the royal motor car purred discreetly from palace to railway station. On the platform stood only one official: Premier Andre Liaptchev.

Out of the car and into the train popped little Tsar Boris and a young woman sometimes called "the uncrowned Queen of Bulgaria." She is meek, sad-eyed, industrious, pious, charitable and much beloved. Each morning this admirable young woman, Princess Eudoxia, 29, assists her brother, the 33-year-old Tsar, with his correspondence, finds out what he desires to eat that day, sets the palace wenches bustling, and counts herself lucky if there remains time for a little tennis or a canter on horseback between the hours of household duty and official functions.

Princess Eudoxia, think Bulgarians, needs far more vacationing than she ever takes. Therefore, approval was general last week, as Tsar and Princess sped northward through the Balkans to a quiet resort in Switzerland.