"He Made Me Do It"

Buck-toothed King Carol of Rumania lay on his bed last week and his tonsils swelled and swelled, his head throbbed. Obviously there was no gratitude in this world, no sense of loyalty. His own brother, slack-chinned Prince Nicholas (the one member of the royal family who stuck by Carol in all his marital difficulties, the one of whom he has frequently said "I owe the throne to him"), had so far forgotten himself to marry a commoner! In bed with tonsilitis & bronchitis King Carol hoarsely croaked: "It's an outrage to the Hohenzollern Dynasty."

Two years ago Prince Nicholas was roaring over a country road when he came upon a stalled car. A taxi driver once blocked Prince Nicholas' car in Bucharest and Prince Nicholas swiftly kicked him in the pit of the stomach (TIME, April 7, 1930), but this was different. Standing by the car (which had a punctured tire) was a plump, dark-eyed, deep-dimpled Rumanian beauty. Prince Nicholas stopped, descended, bowed and offered to drive the beauty back to Bucharest.

One thing led to another. Last week Prince Nicholas and his lady, whose name is Mme Jana Lucia Deletz, climbed into the Prince's car again and eloped. Hours later a telephone call came through to a lady-in-waiting at the royal palace from the little village of Tohan near Buzeu, 125 mi. away.

"This is the Mayor of Tohan," said a voice. "I have just married Prince Nicholas! I didn't want to, but he made me do it! He made me do it!"

Prince Nicholas and his black-haired bride, who is also known as Mme Savianu --her name before she divorced her first husband--stayed in a villa in the country, afraid to come back to Bucharest. King Carol took his tonsilitis & bronchitis off to bed. At intervals he sat up, ordered all records of the marriage destroyed, demanded that the Rumanian Parliament issue a denial that the marriage had ever taken place.

Meanwhile the Rumanian National Bank, quietly, with no headlines, signed an agreement with the Bank of France, Rumania's protector, to borrow $11,700,000 to help strengthen Rumania's gold coverage.

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