ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 19, 22 January 1916, Page 14

ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

King Constantine of Greece U an enthusiastic pedestrian. He has tramped, incognito, through many of the countries in Europe. In comparison with other European monarchs he is poorly j paid, for the thrifty Greeks pay only ( £70,000 a year for. the maintenance of ) the Royal family. i i It is rather curious to find that a i seasoned actor like Mr. H. B. Irving has i never been able to get over the-ner-vousness which he experienced when he , first appeared on the stage. He confesses t>hat 'he has never been able to •conquer that feeling of nervousness on first nights, "which pass eometimes like , a dream and sometimes like a nightmare." Even experience does not , make him any less nervous or apprehensive in Tegard to each new production. He has often said before a first f night: "Well, if I get through bhis part j all right, I shall never be nervous again" —a most erroneous notion, he adds, the falsity of which he has proved with unfailing regularity on the next similar occasion. ( An American engineer, one of seven foreigners in the employ o£ the Amir of Afghanistan, recently passed through London after 6pending three years in Kabul and other parts of the country. IHe Bays the Amir is very popular, particularly by reason of the energy with which he is seeking to develop the country. Since his accession he has built at least twenty palaces, or smaller rosiidencce, for himself in various places. His j Majesty has grown too stout to play j i tennis, and has lately taken up golf at i the Instance of a Scottish engineer. There are some good links at Kabul, and ; the Amir has also had some made at Jalalabad without any bunkere. On ; these he has tea served on every green. There are evidences of German propaganda in Afghanistan, but the Amir has the eituation well in hand, and the country is quite quiet. Miss Elizabeth Asquith, the Premier's youngest daughter, who made her debut a few weeks ago, has long enjoyed the reputation of being a sort of enfante terrible in the Cabinet circle. Perhaps j one of the most audacious of her ex- j ■ploits, says a gossip, occurred just after , ier father took office. An afternoon ' reception, for which Mrs. Asquith had sent out cards, brought a great throng of notabilities, who were not a little surprised to find that a very longlegged and very short-skirted little girl, : who ought, according to all the rules of well-managed juvenility, to have been in the nursery, had taken up her stand in the ball, and insisted on shaking : hands with each arrival with immense dignity, as she murmured some society commonplace. Arrived at the entrance i to the drawing-room on the first "floor c they were gracefully received by the < grown-up daughter of the house, who < apologised for the absence of the real 4 hostess, who was Unknown \ to her elder sister, eleven-year-old Miss 1 Elizabeth wae playing.fche part of ehate- 1 Iftmc \ » ■ l~ ' , ""•■■■■■■ : ~ i - % •■■-£-£.•-;*"*.•■■• ""J! A pretty story connected with the Uer- ' man-trodden young Duchess of Liixem- ] bourg has just come to light. It was ' the day after her-father's death, when : broken down with grief 'and thinking ! little, of the throne that had thus been vacated for her, a messenger rudely ' broke in upon her mourning. He had i brought a letter from the Kaiser, and requested an immediate reply, which "he hinted Ehould be in the affirmative." : Having read the offending missive, and given a categorical ''no" for answer, the youthful Duchcsse soundly reprimanded the intruder for disturbing her upon such a matter at such an inopportune mo- ' ' ment. "No, a thousand times no," exclaimed the then nineteen-year-old reign- . ing Duchessc. "I would rather abdicate ' and die in a convent." And now, this is ■ coming to pass; for the brutal invasion ot" her little country by the German ' hordes was but the Kaiser's vengeance, ■ it appears, for her reply to his messenger. The letter ho had sent contained not a gallant offer of marriage from the Ger- i man Caesars sixth son, but a peremptory command from the Gorman Emperor that the Duchessc should wed that ■ prince. ■ I ,