A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
KNOWING no language in which to characterise fitly the following extract, I leave it uncharacterised. ‘ " One afternoon I was sitting in my room at Buckingham Palace. - There came a gentle knock at the door and Princess
Elizabeth put her head in. I invited her to have some tea.
" ' I have just come to tell you something, Crawfie,' she said after a pause. I waited.
" ' I'm having the old pram brought out! '
"I went to her side quickly and.put my arms round her. ' I am so happy for you, darling,' I said. Then we kissed and wept a little."
The extract is from an advertisement of a series of articles in a women's paper by Miss Crawford, who is described as being " far more than a Royal governess, she was Princess Elizabeth's close friend and confidante." She manifestly has clear views on how confidences should be treated. We are informed that " Only ' Crawfie ' could have written this loving, human, authentic story." I should like to think that only " Crawfie " would ; but in view of the veils torn from Palace privacy by the memoirs of a former private secretary to successive Sovereigns in a Sunday paper, that hope is unhappily illusory.
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