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THE. KING KISSED HER.! AND THEN-
* 4** ; , * The Jealous Queen .. . d ..„
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I Poor Little L’Aerolia
jflK. flHi&'fl Was Rushed Out ot --“
..' Belgium by Police,
Lost Her Sweetheart
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L’Aerolia, Spain’s Youngest and Prettiest Dancer, Who was Kissed Too Loudly by Belgium’s King |j. ' '' •/•?'"(• hI l| Tj F
L'AEROLIA Is very angry with
the King of Belgium. The
King Kissed her.
What! a dancer —even the young
est and prettiest dancer in the world
—mad at a king for kissing her? Oh,
no; but the unnecessary noise in
the kissing thereof, that’s what
little Aerolia is mad about.
A kiss is not necessarily so sy
The etiquette of Cupid’s cov dic
tates that it shall be as nearly
soundless as possible. But Cupid's
cede was made for ordinary mortals
It did not contemplate kings. Cupid
is inclined, indeed, to pass mon
archs. unless they stretch forth
royal hands and lav hold upon him.
King Albert of Belgium stretched
forth his royal hand, and then more
—ho nursed his royal lips, and the
resulting smack reached the
0 ‘con's ears And what the Queen
did about it is what makes
I Aerolia. vexed with the King.
This: has nothing to do with that
other affair rather vague, and
quickly hushed up. in which the
Queen was said to have used a
pistol
King Albert, as a patron of the
arts, attended the Royal Theatre
in Brussels'. L Aerolia was danc
ing This sounds as though it were
a ■ otnmonplace fact, but it was not.
and if you think so it is because
yo>; have never seen L’Aerolia
dance L'Aerolia is a flashing,
flying lure. L'Aerolia is an irre
s stible young person of seventeen.
Irresistible, in part, perhaps, be
cause she is seventeen. But more
because she has Spanish eyes,
biack and deep and filled with
’'itchery, and hair the color of sun
shine. But most of all because she
dances the most alluring dances of
*be nations.
She had finished a dance of An
dalusia. She had flung away her
'Manets, ahd stood in the wings
panting after the dance. The light
m ay have been to blame. Lights
I’biy seucfi insane, fantastic tricks.
They made her look the most be
witching creature in all Brussels,
1,1 ad the world. And King Albert,
P 'bing his royal way from the box
G the monarch, slipped behind the
t '’viifcs like an ordinary man, seized
' “ little dancer in his arms and
Kissed her.
Other members of the opera com-
I !| iy saw the salute —older persons,
Painer persons, those who pos-
SSe, I none of the little dancer’s
Magnetism, and none of her care
-s disregard of a kiss even though
.’ were the kiss of a king. They
did not wait to remove their “make-
up ” They ran, three-of them, with
their eyebrows still sticky with
black, their plain faces still gro
tesque with the red and white of
their applied stage complexions, to
the royal palace as fast as their
legs would carry them.
So fast did they run that thev g-f
--there before His Majesty arrived.
Breathlessly they told the tale of
the kiss to the attendants. The
attendants told the Indies tn wait
ing to Queen Elizabeth. And when
the royal oscillator arrived at the
palace ho received a greeting as
stormy as that extended to any
average man who becomes unduly
emotional outside his own domes
tic circle.
The incident might have been
forgotten or reduced to the mere
whispering state, but King Albert
was indiscreet, as indiscreet as any
mere uncrowned mortal. Having
explained to the Queen as other
men explain such matters —the girl
was so young, a mere child, he
meant no barm, propinquity, not
he. was to blame —ho thoiptHit she
would forget But women and
queens never forget.
When a few months had passed
there arrived in the apartments
which L’Aerolia shared with her
mother, herself a dancer named
Aerolia. and widow of the Spanish
officer. Captain Enrico Doradora, a
royal command to dance at a court
entertainment in the palace at
Brussels.
L’Aerolia went. She went for the
thousand francs that had always
been paid to her when she danced
before royalty. What did she care
for the kiss of a king? Had she
not when a babe sat upon the royal
knee of King Leopold? Did she not
know the Prince of Monaco, for
whom she had danced? Was she
not a protegee of Queen Wilhel
mina, for whom she had flanced
a score of times? Elver since she
could remember she had been danc
ing, and ever since she had been
dancing she had danced for Hol
lanus oueen. What is a kiss?
Pouff! Especially a kiss undesired.
Was she not in love, desperately In
love, though he was only a poor
journalist of Holland, and though
her mother did not approve? What
are kings to a girl who is in love
with a poor young man, poor but
oh! so handsome and so very ar
dent?
She had Joyous thoughts for her
companions on that journey from
Paris to Brussels, joyous thoughts
and her three dolls, for L’Aerolia
still plays with dolls.
She drove from the station to the
ID J
palace. She ran up the palace IX. ju
steps. She was shown to an apart- I ' IL\
ment and was unpacking her dolls I? P' I
and her dancing costumes, the j
Spanish one, the Russian, the kv \ U
French and the Bohemian, when fi |
there was a rap at the door and / ( 7 M /
there entered hastily one of the / ( ,7 |.|
// > I!
I
-
iwwr i .gJ
Queen’s favorite
ladies waiting,
a long cloak over
het arm The lit
tle dancer made
a courtesy, but
the lady in wait
ing did not re
spond. She looked
pale and fright
ened. She came
close to her and
whls red:
“L’Ae.'olia, you
must go back to
Paris at once,
ler Majesty does
not wish you to
dance.”
“But I have
ways danced for
the Queen. i
danced for her
many times when
she was the Prin
cess Elizabeth I."
“ Nevertheless,
you must go
back.”
But f have
been commanded
to dance. The
royal order bear- L’Aerolia, in
ing the seal of King Albert came to
me in Paris.”
I know, but I tell you you must
go back —at once. The Queen says
so.”
And the lady in waiting fell upon
hi r knees and tossed the gowns
and the dolls back into the dancer’s
trunk. She locked the trunk. Then,
to prove she was quite in earnest,
she sat upon it.
it why?" repeated the dancer.
And even at that moment the an
swer came through the palace
walls.
It came in the Queen’s voice, an
grily raised, shot through with a
note of inflexible determination.
"I tell you she shall not dance."
The reply was from the King.
“But I sent a command for her to
dance. She has danced for us many
times. 1 desired to entertain our
guests. His Royal Highness, the
Archduke”
There was a stamp of an angry
foot. "She shall not dance, I tell
you. 3hall she go now or will you
i One of Her
Characterietid
Pose*.
King
Albert
and Queen
Elizabeth,
of Belgium—
the Kissing
Monarch
and His
Jealous
Wife.
I hi
I Jc c(. I
force me to turn her out of the
palace in the presence of the
court?”
The !a,l y in waiting threw on
‘wS ber cloak - “Come,” she whispered.
“Your trunk will follow.”
They- ran down the palace stairs.
> 1
W f - L I Wwir
I
E t .
1 imm Mm
i ... ............
hurried out through the grand en
trance, sprang into a waiting car
riage. “To the station. Hurry,”
saui the lady in waiting.
“Tell me what I have done?” de
manded the tearful little dancer.
“It was not you. It was His
Majesty. He kissed you, and the
Q een is furious. She told me to
place you on a tiain and send you
back to Paris at once."
L'Aerolia traveled back discon
solately to France, her dolls sitting
primly on the seat of the compart
ment beside her. She told her
mother the story and Aerolia the
elder shook her head and sighed.
“ ’Tis the old story,” she said, “of
kings and dancers.”
The next day there came to their
little apartment in the Rue de
Clichy a royal missive. It wae from
the Queen's secretary. It was terse
and unmistakable:
“Keep your daughter out of Bel
gium.”
A draft for a thousand francs fell
from the letter.
L’Aerolia told the story to the
journalist- A great alienist has
said: “Men are stupid things.” The
young man proved it, for he fell
into a fury of jealousy, upbraiding
L’Aerolia, and crying:
"But you must have encouraged
the King by your glances, by your
dancing. Else he would not have
dared to kiss you.”
There was a quarrel and L'Aerolia
made another journey. This was
from Paris to London.
"I am angry with every one—
King Albert, my mamma, my fiance.
1 am tired of everything,” she said
to a friend.
"Go to America. See the New
World. It will help you to forget,”
said the friend, who gave her a
ter to a relative in this country.
But she did not leave her woea
behind her in the Old World. A
person who had been entrusted with
the money to buy her a flrst-ciaM
ticket made a mistake and she wm
placed in the se .ond cabin. Which
grieved her because the second
cabin has but little deck space and
she could aot walk off her griefs,
nor just before retiring dance them
off as she had done in the Bijou
box near the Champs Elysee.
When she arrived in America she
went to bank tc have a draft
cashed, There had been another
blunder like that which placed her
in the racond cabin instead cf the
first. The draft was worthless. T1 >
little dancer driven from Europe by
a king’s kiss and a queen's jealousy,
was penniless and alone in a
strange land, at seventeen.
Once when she was crossing the
Seine, one of the .any little bridges
acrosijthe Seine, she had seen a wo
man’s body carried dripping to the
Morgue. She had caught sight of
the face. It was was full of peace.
The woman who had flung herself
into the Seine had found there what
she want She remembered that
as she had sailed into New York an
hour before they aad passed into a
broad, beautiful river. She too
would seek peace in that river, but
while she walked she bethought her
self of one chance that remained.
She had heard of a woman who
lived in New York, a beautiful, good
and charitable woman. She had
scribbled the address on a card.
Yes, there it was in the bag. She
walked ’□ the home, a nandsome
one near Fifth avenue. She rang
the bell. She showed the card for
her tired tongue refused to frame
her few words of English.
At this home she found a tempor
ary shelter and a friend. She is try-
Ing to fo>' Se t, and she is succeeding,
but she is still angry with the King
of Belgium, very angry,