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Natalie that it was imprudent to speak to strangers in the streets; our peculiar situation demanded precaution.

But the incident did not end there. Some few days later when returning from a walk, the maid accosted me at the door with "La Signorina is in the sitting-room with the Signore proprietor of Villa No.....she is expecting the Signora to join her," I made her repeat the statement, so incredible did it seem to me. I went straight upstairs and decided not to leave my bedroom until the front door had closed on the visitor. When, after some time, this took place, I descended on Natalie like a thunder-storm. "He was waiting outside," she pleaded, "he had something most important to say, and not wishing to be impolite (was it not that Natalie sensed another combination?) I asked him in." Now the something most important proved to be nothing less than an enquiry as to whether I, an American and the proprietress of the Villa, would be willing to take some very valuable Oriental carpets under my care in order to save them should the Americans arrive with the Communists in their wake. He added, perhaps humorously, that his fine carpets would look very well on the floor of my frumpy sitting-room, when it was obvious that everything in it would certainly cry out against any such Oriental splendour. (Incidentally, I must explain that my Villa is a combination of musty English middle-class and obtrusive second-rate Italian furniture. Since my arrival nothing has