that had occurred to him, or to consult me on some matter of his household...

Up to this period I had supposed that Ernest's view of the Prince differed in nothing from my own — that of the family friend; but I began to sense a change in his conduct. He took to inventing excuses to be away from the house the moment he sensed a visit from the Prince; then he could no longer bear my talk of Edward's doings and his activities. And there occurred what I had never before reckoned on at all: it happened that the Prince invited me to Kitzbühel in Austria, together with Ernest, saying that our trip would be for skiing and would come at the beginning of February. Without any hesitation I accepted the invitation for us both, and when I told Ernest of it his face contracted and he shouted in my face, assuring me that he did not like skiing and that he had business more important

What was it the Prince loved in me?

When a man feels that his wife returns the admira-tion... and the love of the heir to the British throne!!

The members of the royal family used to await these excursions with the greatest impatience; as for him, he was searching for something — for anything new — to be found among the forests on hunting trips, or over the currents of the seas. He held that these traditions were daughters of the past and would soon fade away into its folds, while the future called for everything new... And I felt, most of the time, that I was a part of this new world. The days brought me ever closer to him, to his dark and mysterious cave, until we came to take luncheon alone together, and not a day passed without his speaking with me — to tell me of an idea

On the snow trip to Austria