Arthur still remembered the evening following the Robert Cali memorial ceremony.
That night, Kensington Palace was lit two hours longer than usual.
The servants initially thought it was because the Princess was again pestering Lady Leisen to read Scott's "Ivanhoe," but they soon realized something was amiss.
Because the kitchen was heating up a two-person portion of oxtail soup, rather than the Princess's usual bedtime honey milk.
The reaction to the Princess's first public speech was almost immediate.
The Duchess of Kent was, after all, one of the women in the Royal Family most skilled at controlling her emotions.
She neither praised Arthur nor thanked him, she merely had him stay for a bowl of oxtail soup.
But in Kensington Palace, this wasn't politeness, rather it was a signal that you needed to stay for a serious discussion.
