Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1891 — A SINGER’S ROYAL GUEST. [ARTICLE]

A SINGER’S ROYAL GUEST.

Hctw Madame AI ban i Entertains the Queen at an Informal Tea. _‘__.Qnce every summer Queen Victoria drives over from her Balmoral castle to the Scottish Highlands home of Albani-Gye,the famous primadonna, where the latter entertains her at an informal tea. For years the Queen has made a practice of this, a compliment which Her Majesty bestows upon no other lady in the land. It is a return for MadamO Albani’s appearance each year at court to sing before the Queen, and to the prima-don-na it affords an exceptional glimpse of England’s soverign. • ‘ outsiders are ever present, and I see Victoria as a woman, never as a queen.” says Madame Albani. “How do you entertain your royal guest?” was asked of the prima-donna by a friend. _ And for more, than an hour the great singer held the uninterrupted interest of a private dinner party with the story of how she served tea for the Queen. So full of interest was the narrative that Madame Albani was induced to write out the account,* and it will shortly appear in the Ladies’ Home Journal, of Philadelphia, under the title of “Victoria at My Tea Table.” Of its freshness of interest the caption of the article is the best indication. A copy of the last portrait taken of Queen Victoria, and printed only for Her Majesty and the royal family, will accompany the article. *‘i t will be my last portrait,” wrote the Queen on i this presentation copy, which is the ! only copy possessed outside of tho royal household.