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to do so for two hours running. She, red faced and in a perpetual state of irritability, which is not surprising considering her nature and all that she has been forced to endure. He, pale and inclined to intermingle fine oratory and philosophical abstractions with petty outbursts, of a political trend and then the construction of his face undergoes a remarkable change: the muscles drop, the jaw becomes all but detached. "You stand for this war!" is flung at me and I to retort "Certainly not; no  artist stands for war, but who is going to protect us from the Red armies that are waiting their chance to over-run Europe?" He shrugs his shoulders. I ask myself, "Is it that he cannot see the danger or is it that he is under compulsion to see only what he has chosen to see?"

October 8th. We are relieved to hear that neither the Palazzo Poggio Imperiale nor the Castello is to be used for military purposes. Tales are being told about the soldiers robbing the shops. Antonio who goes down to market every morning says that he has never witnessed anything of the sort. When a German soldier enters a shop it is to buy something. The other day he saw a blond giant in a hat shop choosing one of those trifles that now pass off as women's hats. The price was evidently too much, for he was about to walk silently out of the shop when the sales-woman called him back. She had lowered her price, for the soldier paid for the hat and then thrust it into one of his giant pockets.