Princess Margaret: It was the first room I've ever been to where nobody got up, bowed, curtsied. Some just carried on having conversations, as if I wasn't there at all. Those that did talk to me did with such indifference or nonchalance, it verged on impertinence. There was this one in particular. Tony.
Queen Elizabeth II: Anthony, surely?
Princess Margaret: No, he insisted. Tony. Armstrong-Jones. He's this photographer.
Queen Elizabeth II: Like Cecil?
Princess Margaret: Oh, no, nothing like Cecil. Couldn't be less like Cecil. Well, maybe a bit like Cecil, in that he's obviously queer. Though interestingly, Elizabeth denies it.
Queen Elizabeth II: Elizabeth who?
Princess Margaret: Cavendish. I called her when I got home last night and interrogated her. "What are the five most important things I need to know about that man?"
Queen Elizabeth II: Why five?
Princess Margaret: I don't know. Felt like the right number.
Queen Elizabeth II: Why not three?
Princess Margaret: He's more interesting than three.
Queen Elizabeth II: So, what did she say?
Princess Margaret: One, that he's Welsh.
Queen Elizabeth II: Is that interesting?
Princess Margaret: No, not particularly. That he had polio as a child. That he has a passion for inventing things. And he would never dream of being anything as straightforward as "simply queer."
Queen Elizabeth II: What on earth does that mean?
Princess Margaret: I'm not altogether sure. But I'm also not incurious to find out.
Queen Elizabeth II: What was number five?
Princess Margaret: That was five.
Queen Elizabeth II: No, Margaret, that was four.
Princess Margaret: All right. Five is I liked him.
Queen Elizabeth II: Yes, I can tell that.
Princess Margaret: There's a contempt in him.
Queen Elizabeth II: What for?
Princess Margaret: For me. For us. For everything we represent. I actually think you'd like him. That's what's so dangerous about him.
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