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the Government for the bombing of her house!) and above all to be careful not to offend the working classes. To all this Natalie is in fact impervious. The Sfollata called her a slave-driver. Did she not hear her scolding the idiot workman for being idle when actually the sweat of labor was dripping from his brow? Natalie had no notion of the present world in which she was living. It was quite fit and proper that the refuge should remain unfinished, that the workman should be useful, and what was more unpleasant to hear, that the bill for the refuge should amount to twice the sum agreed upon with the engineer (of what importance a gentleman's agreement when gentlemen are no longer persone grate? Natalie would certainly end up by being sent to a concentration camp if she continued her interfering, whilst I would remain unmolested because of my quiet restraint. Now all this went to show that quiet restraint (I should call it indifference) proves a much better policy than meddling in people's affairs, even though thus meddling leads to acts of kindness (Natalie can be very kind). 
Natalie returned just as I was about to compromise, by agreeing to pay the engineer in kind; to give him back after the war all the wooden beams; each one of which would then be worth a fortune, affirmed the Sfollata. At once Natalie deprecated any such generosity for, said she, the beams would be needed to prop up our old house should the war