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-I28-

controls our property denies all responsibility since we have taken the law (military) into our own hands, without consulting them, - which would have meant consulting them for three years.

Yesterday we went down to Florence about the lifting of the sequestration of our house and N. seemed to possess wings. She flew to the Questura,to the lawyer's,to the Monte dei Paschi bank,to the Swiss Consulate and so on during the whole afternoon. N. knows all these addresses and can find her way about,perfectly. I follow with the sole object of not losing sight of my friend's back - the blue and white dots of her silk dress. Should I lose sight of these,all would be lost for I know neither the names of the streets nor the numbers of the houses we are to visit,nor do I know over-precisely the intricacies of the matters in hand. 'You don't look all there!' says N.,and I am certainly not and should prefer to be elsewhere. The climax of that particular Odyssey was a visit to our American liberator lawyer who represents American interests in Florence, and who was installed in the Ricardi Palace.

We climbed up many stairs,rounded many pillars,passed through endless porticoes,and then out of breath we entered a palatial room where in the distance we espied seated at an enormous Buhl desk,a little man clad in khaki. Along the miles of wall at his back hung a tapestry showing Moses with