Elena was born in Bucharest on December 19, 1878. Compared to other Romanian women of the "fin de siècle", and even to some men, she was highly educated, taking her diplomas at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters and the "Collège de France". Her study interests were French culture, art history, and philosophy. It was in Paris (where she was chaperoned by Constantin Bacaloglu) that she met Ovid Densusianu, her future lover. However, her first marriage was to Radu D. Rosetti, who was to become a highly successful lawyer and a minor neoromantic poet. Reportedly, she fell "madly in love", and convinced her reluctant parents to approve of him. They were engaged on December 19, 1896, and had their religious wedding in January of the next year, with politician Nicolae Filipescu as godfather. They had a daughter together.