3 Women, 3 Children

The abdicated Crown Prince Carol of Rumania was sitting quietly on a divan at his Paris home one morning last week. Beside him sat a red-haired Rumanian Jewess, Mme. Magda Lupescu. A prying world knows that they reside together and that she is enceinte (TIME, Dec. 13). A sea coal fire glowed upon the hearth and Carol read aloud, in thoughtful domesticity, from the morning newspaper.

Suddenly came a sound at the casement window. It was pushed open, and a seven-year-old boy climbed onto the sill. He was supported by a weary, drawn-faced woman, Mme. Zizi Lambrino, one-time morganatic wife of Prince Carol. The towheaded boy was their son, Mircea.

"Papa! Papa!" he cried, "Mama and I want you to come home with us! We love you, Papa!"

Mme. Lambrino screamed, clutched her side. Carol, vexed, rushed to the window, banged it shut and telephoned to the Prefect of Police. He demanded protection against such picketing by his morganatic wife and her son whose legitimacy he does not recognize. Soon two Parisian detectives were patrolling Carol's yard. When little Mircea came next day with his mother and shouted "Papa! Papa!" from the gate, the detectives told him to move on.

Simultaneously a very beautiful woman and a handsome child of five were en route to Italy from Rumania in a private car attached to the famed Simplon-Orient Express. She was Elena,* Princess of Greece and Rumania, consort of the abdicated Prince Carol. The boy was their five-year-old son, Mihail, now Crown Prince of Rumania. Carol has not returned to reside with them since November, 1925 when he left Rumania to attend the funeral of Alexandra, late Dowager Queen-Empress of Britain.

As the Simplon-Orient Express drew into Venice, newsgatherers watched to see if the royal salon car would remain coupled when the express puffed out toward Paris, toward Carol. Was a Crown Prince soon to cry, "Papa! Papa,!"?

A greasy yardman uncoupled the royal car. The Rome train luxe backed in, and the car was coupled on. Next day His Majesty King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy entertained in state at Rome Princess Elena and Crown Prince Mihail. Two days later the royal visitors proceeded to Florence. There Princess Elena consulted her oculist; for, beautiful though she is, she is said to be losing her eyesight. Through a lady-in-waiting Princess Elena intimated her plans to the press: "Her Royal Highness declares absolutely false all rumors to the effect that she will meet the abdicated Crown Prince Carol while on her present trip. The sole intention of Her

Royal Highness in leaving Bucharest is that her son, the Crown Prince, may escape the extremely rigorous winter of Rumania. From Florence she and our little Crown Prince will go to spend the rest of the winter at Rapallo [Italian Riviera]."

*Rumanian version of Helen, Helena, Helene, Eleanor, Nellie, Ellen.