"A Queen's Heart"

"A Queen's Heart"

"My critics and adversaries say I am an ambitious woman, that I wanted to be a modern Cleopatra, that I wished to be queen. This is cruelly false."

Newsgatherers jotted these words briskly, last week in Bucharest as the Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania gave out her first interview since the death of her consort, Ferdinand I, and the ascension under a Regency of her five-year-old grandson, King Michael I (TIME, Aug. 1). Soon the Queen Grandmother went on to speak in such vein that she revealed herself once more as a clever and attentive student of all that is written or implied about Her Majesty. She said:

"Those who think evil things of me say I dislike my daughter-in-law Helene [Mother of King Michael]; that I am jealous of her; that I wanted the regency; that I even begrudged little Michael inheriting the legal right to the throne. These accusations are heartlessly false. I love Helene and her child with all my heart. They have been deserted by their husband and father.* Shall I forsake them in this solemn, trying hour when Michael is about to ascend the throne? No. A queen's heart has greater love than that."

A pause. The moment lengthened, and Marie of Rumania seemed in her stately mourning gown more than wronged and wholly regal. Then, as HerMajesty's mood shifted, she told the correspondents that as soon as the period of mourning for her husband is over she expects to revisit the U. S.

Addressing a U. S. correspondent directly, Her Majesty said:

"There are a thousand and one things I omitted seeing on my last journey and legions of people I failed to meet. I want to see one of your great national political conventions, and if time and my duties permit next summer, it is possible that I shall be able to leave here in time to see such a gathering. "

I carried back a thousand pleasant memories of my stay in your country, but there were also some mistakes made which can be rectified on the next trip."

Lastly, Her Majesty replied to a question as to whether her unmarried daughter, Princess Ileana, might espouse a U. S. citizen.

"Ileana," said Her Majesty crisply, "will probably not marry for a year at least, nor will her brother Nicholas. . . . Ileana liked the way American boys danced and conducted themselves. She liked their great deference and reverence toward womankind, too. I would have no objection to her marrying a nice young American, if she really loved him and I thought they would get along well together."

Despatches revealed, last week, that, during the funeral of King Ferdinand, the dead monarch's robe was suddenly flirted by the wind in such a way that part of it covered the head of Prince Nicholas, while he was assisting the pallbearers. This "sign," said many superstitious Rumanians, indicates that Prince Nicholas will some day succeed his father as King. He would do so automatically should five-year-old Michael die.

At Paris the abdicated onetime Crown Prince Carol of Rumania, father of King Michael, issued a statement last week which broadly hinted that he expects to return to Rumania some day in a position of power, impliedly either as Regent or as King.

* The abdicated onetime Crown Prince Carol of Romania who now resides at Paris.