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THE. KING KISSED HER.! AND THEN- * 4** ; , * The Jealous Queen .. . d ..„ - s*ll 7771--“6771 (I fIOW ne ‘ ,nd od «“ ”’« P-ntinr. I Poor Little L’Aerolia jflK. flHi&'fl Was Rushed Out ot --“ ..' Belgium by Police, Lost Her Sweetheart and Landed in "*”’W T ' W.JI America " jK iSIE Penniless wWwOilM f t/t/tutdd YWESirk ■^M®r i ."' y ' D atl K fJi' a rf 51 ■ Broken- Ik, a -o^-'-M Hearted; *j| \ Told For '% , |.WBr , Wlßl . ;.. the First f; MjfS W1 v I > JMi 081 1 *’i m h $ 3 1 ■ -'i ; ' w\i"T yJJ ® iwjl 48y <U|mBwMhw|wWK<w> M r • J <f'^- ( .z^ r <Z I I ' fl i A' ? ' / / firS Wi flj|,v'/“’-'-. i (U> a/ * J 4 fl m’ I 1 » U -uj f/vij '■ <■ > . \>>A pw iWSRMWWJ ~ -I 4 yc<\ rtj /PMOMBHMIRfI I 11 i Ikl If 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,