Катя и принц Сиама

‘Just peacefully giving up’, as her doctor described it, she may have recalled from her girlhood in Russia long ago, a wise old saying: ‘Never regret past happiness, but be grateful to have known it!’

As not infrequently happens, dramatic coincidence can play a part in real life which would be dismissed were it written in a book or play as being unlikely or far-fetched.

For when the rapture of passionate love inevitably subsides and the personality with its many failings emerges from the rosy clouds of euphoria, it is hard for both the lover and the beloved to submit so sublime an experience to the routines of daily life, blessed no longer by the magic ardour that brought them first together.

Money is really full of significance.

In addition, the timing of their visit was most opportune as June in St Petersburg is the time of the famous ‘white nights’ when dusk does not come till two o’ clock in the morning and the Nevsky prospect and banks of the river are thronged with strolling couples into the early hours.

It’s the worst of being a Prince – one is put under all sort of restraints and one can never act on impulse – everything one does and says is taken note of, and perhaps reaches Bangkok to cause trouble there!