The "Fort" refers to Fort Belvedere, a country house in Windsor Great Park, former royal residence and once the home of King Edward VIII, subsequently known, after his abdication, as the Duke of Windsor, but at this point referred to as the Prince [of Wales] in Thelma's memoir, co-written with her sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt [Double Exposure, New York: David McKay, 1958].  The "Wallis" and "Wally" (in manuscript) refers to Wallis Simpson, afterward the Duchess of Windsor.

I wonder about the people who annotate library books.  The "Romance" of this particular chapter's title, "Royal Romance" has been crossed out and "Concubinage" written in.  You see the subtle shift in meaning, I'm sure.  I can even see with my mind's eye some determined old scholarly crone hard at work, bent over this volume, similar to the old gal in a red plaid hunting jacket and several elastic-waisted skirts and work boots who sat near me the other day at the central library downtown, a ripe pong wafting over from her cubicle, her acerbic remarks about the world addressed to a bevy of invisible friends with whom she was engaged in a furiously muttered debate of rebukes and threats, just audible enough to draw my attention from my own studies.  But what, you may ask, was either of us doing there? 

You ask because I've neglected to mention I am also reading the Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur (A Princess Remembers, London: Century Publishing, 1976).  The beautiful Maharani was the daughter of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar and granddaughter of the Gaikwar of Baroda, whose famous pearls you will remember being sold at Christie's last year for roughly $7.1 million.  More to the point, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt describes a trip to the Deauville Casino (Double Exposure, p. 135) with her husband Reggie (Reginald Vanderbilt), when their guests included the Baron and Baroness de Rothschild and the Gaikwar of Baroda and his wife. 

"The Gaikwar was such a short and unassuming man," writes Gloria, "it was diffciult to believe he controlled lands equal in size to most European countres, and that his wealth made the combined Vanderbilt fortunes appear, by comparison, no more than the savings in a thrift account."
 
Meanwhile I learned from my careful reading of the news this morning that pawn shops are doing a brisk business in this country since Congress bailed out the banks and lending institutions.  Luckily the CEOs of Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros and Morgan (and AIG and Countrywide) all got their millions out in advance.  Close call! 

And I learned a new expression: "Grills for Bills."  It refers to people who sell their gold teeth for cash.  One pawnbroker says he makes sure he has a piece of paper towel ready when folks come in with teeth, but he weighs them "just like he would any other gold." 

And what choice do you have?  It's your teeth or your rent.  This is America.  In some countries, like Russia, people got steel teeth.  Or none at all.  What would you do then?