Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 23).djvu/25

 A KING'S GALLERY OF

BEAUTY. 17

QUEEN MaARIE OF Bavaria

was a Prussian Princess and the wife of King Maximilian I1., the son of Lud- wig I. She was the mother of Ludwig II. and Otto I, the two young Bavarian Kings so sadly afflicted with in- sanity. Lud- wig II. was of chief interest to the world through his great influence on the life of Wagner. Dur- ing the sad years of 1870-71 she occupied her- self most zeal- ously with the comfort of the

looking at her with an absent air, pensively remarked : It is astonishing ! One would hardly have believed it.” No one knew whether she was ever aware of having ex- pressed aloud her innermost thoughts about the elderly beauty. Possibly the little story

was merely owing to the poor lady’s former beauty

having roused the jealousy of

rivals. AnNNA KauLa,

known in her family circle as

wounded. Every day during many weeks she went to the Odéon-- a large building where the famous Court con- certs take place—and helped the ladies of the town to sew garments and make bandages and lint for the wounded. From that time dates an amusing little anecdote, which goes to show that even Queens may sometimes say things which one would rather

QUEEN MAKIE OF BAVARIA,

Nannie or Nanette, was remarkable for her great beauty. She was a gentle, sweet woman, not very brilliant, and scemed hardly aware of her loveli- ness. Her father was a banker in Vienna, but it is believed that he left her no particular fortune. She and her sister were brought up in Munich by an

aunt. She was scven-

have left unsaid. One lady whose portrait was painted for the Gallery of Beauties about the same time as Queen Maric’s also came to these charit- able meetings. On being presented to the Queen the latter looked puzzled, as if trying to fix some recollection. Then she remembered and said, with one of her sweet smiles: ‘“Are you not the beautiful Friulein Vetterlein whose portrait is in the Gallery of Beau- ties?” ‘T'he lady, much flattered, replied in the

teen years old when the King desired her portrait, and on becoming more widely known, as was always the case whena girl was beautiful enough to be painted for the cele- brated collection, she had a great many suitors. She seemed not to care for marriage. At last, when her family believed that she had decided to re- main single, she chose a man, much her senior, who could not offer her any worldly advantages and was in no way remarkable. “ L'awmour,

affirmative. The Queen, Vol xxiii,—3

Go gle

ANNA KAULA,

ou va-t-1l se nicher !