HONG KONG — Many years ago, on my second day working in London, I was invited to take tea with Prince Charles in Buckingham Palace. About half a dozen journalists met the young prince who was about to embark on his royal duties but who clearly hadn't a clue about how the rest of the world lived and worked.
Small talk was strained, but I remember asking him if he would like one day to forget that he was a prince and go down the King's Road in Chelsea, the hangout of the smart set of those days, and enjoy a coffee and conversation, just like a normal young man.
"Oh, no," he replied in the distinctively royal bray, "one is not brought up to that kind of thing." Even young royals know they are special and shouldn't mix with the plebs.