Between 3 and 5 p.m. Agniya and I were at St James’s Palace, at a specially arranged viewing of the wedding gifts presented to the Duke of Kent and Marina. A great mass of people. An incredible crush and confusion. There were so many presents that when we entered the hall with the tables, chairs, beds and others gifts presented to the bride and groom, you might have thought you were in a furniture store. The greatest attention was lavished on the items of jewellery, especially the three diamond diadems given to Marina by her fiancé, her father and the British queen. The diadems were kept under glass, and the wives of the ambassadors and British notables were simply dying of envy and rapture. Out of all the books presented to the duke and Marina, it was a thick leather-bound volume entitled Russian Imperial Dinner Service that caught my eye.