As a matter of fact, when the two young people met, they did not attract each other. On the other hand, at the ball given in the King's honour at Buckingham Palace, Alfonso never took his eyes off a young, fair-haired princess, whose radiant beauty shed all the glory of spring around her.
"Who is that?" asked the King.
"Princess Ena of Battenberg," was the reply.
The two were presented, danced and talked together, met again on the next day and on the following days.
And, when the King returned to Spain, he left his heart in England.
But he did not breathe a word about it. His little idyll, which took the form of an interchange of letters and postcards as well as of secret negotiations with a view to marriage—negotiations conducted with the English royal family by the King in person—was pursued in the greatest mystery. People knew, of course, that the princess and the King liked and admired each other; but they knew nothing of the young monarch's private plans. Moreover, he took a pleasure in mystifying his entourage. He who had once been so expansive now became suddenly contemplative and reserved.
Soon after his return, he ordered a yacht; and, when the time came to christen her, he made the builders paint on the prow in gold letters:
PRINCESS ...
The comment aroused by these three little dots may be easily imagined.