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they could no longer enjoy it. At first we talked very little about politics, but before our guests retired to their side of the house we did broach of [[strikethrough]] on [[/strikethrough]] the subject of Italy's present plight. If only Italy had kept out of the war, if Mussolini had stood aloof, a unique political figure of modern times. Any unique European political figures were doomed to be attacked sooner or later, someone added. On the whole Signora S. was somewhat subdued, less sure of her grounds. "The destruction, what does it all mean?" she asked. 

November 27th. This evening during the alarm, we sat in the "sfollati's" dining-room, the only room downstairs that is not damp as well as cold. But sitting in the dining-room meant sitting with our sfollata for over an hour. She settled herself with a basket of stockings to mend but never once did she ply her needle. Instead she talked and talked about herself, about her success as a lecturer and especially about one lecture which she gave at Rome on Marie Antoinette whose fair name she defended, it would seem, by first searching out certain private incidents in the life of the Queen, incidents little known to the general public, but which the Signora was able to use to good effect in her vindication of this unhappy lady. The lecture met with great success, she told us, and many were those who wept when they came forward to congratulate her. And there was more about this lecture; how it was disapproved of as unpatriotic by the French Embassy and how she confounded them all by her smart repartees.