ALL FOR LOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11544, 1 December 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALL FOR LOVE.

A PRINCESS AND HER REJECTED SUITOR. Princess Victoria, the only remaining unmarried daughter of the Prince of Wales, has finally, according to report in London, dismissed her patient suitor, Prince George of Greece, who has proposed to her every year for 15 years. Her reason ? It is a strange one in Royalty, where marriages are of earthly planning, She does not love her handsome cousin. That is all the reason Princess Victoria can name. She sees no stigma in the title " old maid." It is less terrible to her than a loveless marriage. She is a. sentimental Princess, you -will perceive. In that respect she resembles her sisters Princess Maud of Wales, now the wife of Prince Karl of Denmark, and Princess Louise of Wales, now Duchess of Fife. Both married for love in preference to sitting on thrones without it, and their maiden sister has vowed that if she may not marry for love she will not marry at all. In the past her wishes were baulked by Royal prejudice. She is past 30 now, and can look back on more than one sad experience of the heart. In her girlhood she fell in love with a penniless lieutenant. He was a younger son of a noble familya family far older than that of the Duke of Fife (destined to be the husband of her sister Louise)— there was no prospect of his ever succeeding to the title or owning anything that he did not earn with his own hands. It was true that his character was irreproachable, and that he loved the Princess no less ardently than she loved him; but character and love don't count for much in the eyes of Royal matchmakers, and Queen Victoria took urgent steps to put an end to the romance of her granddaughter. The lieutenant was summoned to Windsor, and after an interview with the Queen found hiniself„with a captain's command under ordels for India. And that was the last of him so far as the Princess Victoria was concerned. The Princess proved very stubborn after that. She would not hear a word from the various Royal suitors whom her grandmamma and papa wished her to favour. Her attitude was that if she were not allowed to choose a husband for herself she would not marry at all. A couple of years ago she exhibited more than ordinary interest in Lord Revelstoke, the industrious chief of the house of Baring. Horrified as aristocrats of the old school were at first at the idea of a daughter of Royalty marrying a banker, the admirable behaviour of Lord Revelstoke in slaving for the restoration 'of his family's fortune and the sincere attachment between himself and the Princess softened criticism and awakened much sympathy. But the Prince of Wales remained unmoved, and his daughter ceased to meet Lord Revelstoke. Indeed, she ceased to appear in society at all. Among the many eligibles with whom rumour associated her name were the Earl of Rosebery and the Czarewitch of Russia —now Czar.

Meanwhile gallant Prince . George of Greece, now Governor of Crete, most athletic and picturesque of Europe's Royalties, has been paying court to his English cousin from boyhood. And he, according to this latest report, has received his final dismissal.