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When she marries Charles, some time late in July and probably in Westminster Abbey, Diana, who will then be 20, will begin sharing his responsibilities. "I was about that age when I started," says the Prince. "It's obviously difficult to start with, but you just have to plunge in." His duties consist, principally of letting himself be seen, not to mention photographed and interviewed, at factories, schools, small-town gatherings and state func tions. That routine will not change much when he finally becomes King—upon his mother's death or abdication (she is 54 and in good health), although he will then have the right to see official papers. Diana will, of course, share in the privileges as well as the pains of the monarchy, an institution that only 10% of polled Brit ons wish to see abolished. Among the royal benefits: Highgrove, the 347-acre Gloucestershire country estate Charles purchased for about $2 million last August, his estimated $400,000 annual in come, and such quaint perquisites as first claim to any whale that washes up on the Cornish beaches.
The girl who will be Queen has already resigned her teaching post and moved from her London flat into royal quarters. At Clarence House, home of the popular "Queen Mum," Elizabeth's mother, and just 200 yds. from Buckingham Palace, she will doubtless be instructed in some of the finer nuances of royal protocol. She has presumably already satisfied the royal doctors that she can bear healthy children and has no family history of hereditary maladies. Asked if she feels prepared for the life ahead of her, the future Queen of England responded in the sweet, storybook style that has already endeared her to Britons: "With Prince Charles beside me, I cannot go wrong."
* In 1659 Prince James—later James II—married Lady Anne Hyde.