World: Once Upon a Time

So far as David's family or the Court were concerned, I simply did not exist.

—The Duchess of Windsor

This short line compresses the bitterness of 30 years. But last week, as Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Duke of Windsor, lay shrouded in bandages after three operations for a detached retina of the eye, the glacial attitude of the royal family at last was softening. Queen Elizabeth graciously let it be known that she would visit her uncle as soon as his condition would permit. And she would not only take note that the duchess existed, but would extend her...