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Wallis was born in Baltimore. She never knew her father. He died when she was five months old. But her mother was a strong and loving woman, and Wallis was a happy child.

This is how Lady Furness described Mrs Simpson's early life to Edward:

When she was twenty, she married a man called Win－field Spencer. For the first few years they were happy togeth－er. But one day Winfield lost some money in the street. He was very angry. When he came home, he took a bottle of whisky from a cupbodrd and began to drink.

That night he hit Wallis in the mouth. She screamed and he hit her again. There was blood on her face and she was shaking like a leaf. "Please, Winfield," she said. "No more."

But Winfield took her arm and pulled her up the stairs. "You're my prisoner," he shouted at her, "and you're not going to leave." Then he pushed her into the bathroom and locked the door.

The next morning Wallis went back to her family. "I can't stay with him," she said. "I want a divorce."

"Poor Wallis," Edward said. "But what happened next, Lady Furness?"

Lady Furness looked at the Prince and smiled. "I don't know, Sir," she said. "I don't know."

"And are they happy?" asked Edward.

During the next two years the Prince saw Wallis once or twice a week. They had the same friends, and they often met at parties.

"Well," said Lady Furness, "a few months later she met a fine man called Ernest Simpson. He's quiet, but interesting. They got married and they now live in a beautiful flat in the centre of London."

"Mrs Simpson knew a lot about life," Edward once said. "She loved books, food, people, and travel. She was very beautiful and her eyes were full of fire. She was friendly and easy to talk to and, after a while, I opened up my heart. We had no secrets. I told her everything. And that's how it all began."

"His eyes were always sad," Wallis said about Edward. "And sometimes he looked like a child -- so young, so quiet, so weak. He had no real friends. Perhaps people were a little afraid of him. But he was a warm and kind man. When he talked to me, I felt my heart jump. I wanted to be alone with him, but I knew that wasn't possible. Did the Prince love me in those early days? No, I don't think so. But each time we met, we just felt closer and closer."

In June 1933 Edward gave a birthday party for Wallis, and during the next few months he visited the Simpson's flat in London almost every day.

One evening, the Prince asked Wallis and Ernest to go skiing in Austria. "I'm sorry, Sir," Mr Simpson replied. "I have to go to America on business. But perhaps Wallis and her aunt can come with you."

"We went to Kitzbuhl as friends," Wallis wrote later, "but when we came home, we were in love. And a few months later the Prince asked me to marry him. It was just like a dream!"