could draw him to me was my independent American nature, my frankness, my spirit of fun — and then, of course, my interest in him as a human being... And then, he was lonely, and perhaps I was the only one who had managed to pierce the icy curtain through to the depths of his soul; beyond that, there was no tangible substance to feed the supposed affection.

And I come back to myself... What was it that drew me to him?... He was the magic door to the world of fame and glory; and he was natural in his conduct,

simple in his way of living, though he had a vast world at his command to turn however he pleased.

And when I thought of all this, that evening, I asked myself: is it conceivable that I — Wallis Warfield of Baltimore, Maryland — should become part of this magic world?... And even as I questioned, I was wishing that this beautiful evil would come to pass.

Ernest was at Southampton with his car, and when he showered me with a stream of questions about how my journey had been,

my whole answer was that I could not describe it...

Ernest's view of the Prince changed from that moment; and life went on in this lukewarm air, while the Prince spent a spell with his family at Balmoral... After his return he came to us for luncheon, then invited Ernest and me to spend the weekend at Fort Belvedere...

During that autumn I learned many lessons I had not known about the Prince's life. His brother and friend George intended to marry Princess Marina of Greece on the 29th of November, and this event was enough to occupy society for weeks; yet I noticed that the Prince was living in a gloomy, silent air. He and his brother loved one another; over and above the tie of blood, there was between them a firm spiritual bond... George used to visit the Fort every weekend before his marriage, and I too visited it with Ernest...

Princess Marina was in Paris with her family, preparing the wedding trousseau, and the Prince was to stand beside George at the wedding ceremony. We spent a happy time with George, who loved the beautiful Marina and rejoiced that he would have a home of his own.

Several official parties were held at Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the happy wedding, and I was invited, with Ernest, to every one of them. The wedding was set for eleven o'clock in the morning, at Westminster Cathedral, where the great men of the land and the nobles and members of the royal houses from every part of the world had gath-ered... The Prince had reserved two seats for me and Ernest in the side gallery of the cathedral, from which we could watch the moving procession and the course of the ceremony... And with the parting of Prince George —

for he had become 'Duke of