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for three days. At present these trains are under German military control and have been stopped running altogether. Natalie is feeling tragic. She had hoped to obtain the various permissions without which we cannot leave Italy.  Natalie certainly looks ill: the emotions she undergoes every day are very bad for her heart. The air-raids affect her more than they do me.  I wish she were safe in Switzerland!

The Baroness went on to tell us that Captain J.B. is to travel by this train.  She thought it possible that he might be captured on the way by the Germans.  But why the Germans, since we always understood that the English officer was a pronounced Fascist?  Everything is somewhat muddled nowadays.

October 6th.  We were obliged to tell our "sfollati" that we can no longer feed them.  It is now over a week since they arrived and they have offered none of their food tickets to Antonio.  Under these circumstances there is not enough food to go round.  Antonio looks gaunt and thin; because of these guests there is more work for him to do and less food to eat.  To be sure they did offer us an unsavoury chunk of meat which had been packed away in a valise for several days.  Even when Antonio lost his food tickets, the "sfollati" did not come forward with theirs.  This remissness would have seemed inexplicable had we not upon reflection concluded that the two ex-soldiers helping Signora S. to dig about in her ruins, were being fed in our stead.