in the style of an "English gentleman". From 1907 onward, Marie frequently stayed at Știrbey's estate at Buftea, where the two were often seen riding horses together out in the countryside, leading to rumors of the affair becoming common knowledge in Bucharest. Știrbey was the reputed father of the last of Marie's children, Prince Mircea, and was quite possibly the father of Princess Ileana. It was often noted that Princess Ileana bore a marked resemblance to Știrbey, to such an extent that King Boris III of Bulgaria rejected her as a potential bride under the grounds that she was probably a Știrbey rather than a Hohenzollern. Quinlan wrote: "Marie had her own private suite at Buftea, Ştirbey's estate, and he had his own apartment at both the Cotroceni and the royal palace in Bucharest. Their lengthy affair was so well known among the palace staff that Marie and Ştirbey hardly bothered to hide their feelings for each other within the confines of the royal palaces." Marie wrote in her 1935 memoirs The Story of My Life about the "White Prince": "No one had ever guessed what passions lay beneath his unbending pride". A secretive man, Știrbey preferred to stay out of the limelight, and to operate in the shadows, always pressing for someone else to carry out the policies he favored. When Știrbey's brother-in-law, Brătianu, was prime minister, his sister Elisa saw herself as the first lady of Romania. Elisa Brătianu had a longstanding feud with Queen Marie, forcing Știrbey into the uncomfortable role of the peacemaker as he sought to mediate between his sister and his lover. Though Știrbey's title was only superintendent of the royal estates, which he held from 1913 onward, in charge of managing the vast estates owned by the House of Hohenzollern, he served as Marie's principle adviser on Romanian politics and economics. The Romanian Crown Domain as the lands owned by the House of Hohenzollern were known were profitable under Știrbey's management as he went about modernizing the agricultural and sylvicultural techniques on the farmlands and forestlands of the Crown Domain. The Crown Domain was divided into 11 districts, each one had a chief agronomist and a sylviculturist, who was reported directly to the superintendent of the Crown Domain based in Bucharest. Știrbey used his influence with Marie to favor the National Liberal Party as he was close to his brother-in-law Ion I. C.