The Qneen and Beatrice.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 119, 12 September 1885, Page 3

The Qneen and Beatrice.

It is very evident that the Queen of England and her family have no love of purple and fine linen when they are " off duty. " Our royal family has always been dowdy, said a loyal English woman at Aix-les-Bains, a8 'she returned from presenting some Eowers to the Princess Beatrice on her birthday. ... "Well," said an outsider, "what did the Princess wear ? I desire to know what clothes princesses wear when they are at home in the morning." "An old checked black-and-white silk dress, which I should have given to my maid," answered the loyal English woman j "but she was very lovely and courteous, and blushed and stammered, and was frightened when we offered her flowers, just like any other girl. I could not help loving her for it." On another occasion the Queen sent for the doctors of Aix and their wives, who, being: Frenchwomen, were of course .beaut* fully dressed. On being asked what the Queen wore, one of the ladies said, "A very plain, short black cashmere dress, rather the worse for wear, with no ornament excepting the picture of Prince Albert at her neck." .„ . ,u „ '« And how were her manners ?" asked her interlocutor. . .... , " Very simple, unostentatious, kindly and deified." , . . . She speaks French perfectly, without an accent, and talked to the doctor of the scenery, the history of Savoy, the treatments, baths, etc. I did not feel that she was tbe Queen until she rose, which was her signal to us that the interview was at an end. Then a certain dignity, a certain habit of command, clothed her Bhorfc, stout figure as with a royal mantle, and she looked the Queen.