PRINCE LEOPOLD'S BRIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 7

PRINCE LEOPOLD'S BRIDE.

The Princess Helena of W.ildcck is going to Paris, says the London Truth, to buy her trousseau. .She will procure it at establishments patronised by the Queen of Holland, and is to be taken to them incognita by a lady attached to the Dutch Legation. lam told that Queen Emma is showing herself very generous tc her sister, who is to stay with her from the time she has done with her Parisian outfitters until she goes to England to be married. The ducal family of Fyrmont-Waldcck is old,'proud ami far from rich. Most of its domestic arrangements have been made on the needs-must principle. If the portions of the numerous daughters of this house had been fairly good the eldest would not now be Queen of Holland. Princess Helena is of a romantic disposition, although something of a blue stocking. Her father's little State is beautifully picturesque and fearfully poverty stricken. It is a country of high hilU, wooded glens and brawling streams and streamlets. Princo Leopold met his future wife at Riipenheini. She is connected with tho royal family of England, through tins Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess of Wales, and was highly spoken of by the Grand Duke of HosscDarmstadt. He opined that she would be just the person to lead with the Prince a quiet, studious life at C'laremont, and he, if his health broke down, a ministering angel to him. A member of an embassy here has told me that the Princess Helena would make an ideal wife for an earnest and charitaMy disposed English rector. Through the Nassau family she has some j/reat and wealthy relations, but she lias not been reared "in grand style. She is tris-ulm/tlclt,; fair, fresh, gentle and of .1 cheerful, even temper, and though not very iliit'iniiiti: she is certainly not rustic in her unallected simplicity. The Queen of Holland, by and by, is coining out as a leader of society at the Hague. She is fond of elegant toilets, music, dancing and such gaieties as the Dutch capital affords. It appears that she has grown quite pretty since her marriage. Her hair, which is of a burnished blonde colour, is very fine, and she understands how to dress to advantage. The complexion is made up of roses and lilies, and the neck and arms, if wanting in purity of outline, are beautifully white and plump. Blue is her Majesty's favourite colour. She sits in a boudoir hung with blue silk, decorated with Nankin blue porcelain, and she often dresses in blues of various shades. At a ball given at the Palace about ten days ago she was in a white satin skirt, covered with old point lace, sky blue corsage and train, and had for garnitures •ind head-dress blue featheret and pearls. The sister of the Duchess of Connaught has thrown aside her willow's weeds and was at the ball, she and the Queen .lanced info the small hours of morning. Princess Pauline, the youthful heiress presumptive, sutlers from her teeth, and does not appear to have a robust constitution. She may not, therefore, stand in the way of tho Crand Ducal family of Saxe-Weimar. The Prince of Orange, on the other hand, is not so wretchedly delicate .13 he was, but he keeps aloof from his father and stepmother, and is engaged in collecting materials for a history of "the Dutch branch of the Nassau family, which he believes has got to the end of its tether.