Warsaw is bombed. Sandbags are piled against windows and doors. Valuables are hidden in cellars. Cities sit in darkness at night with lights concealed. Gas masks are handed out. War is declared September 3, 1939. This is the end of peace and the end of Anais' romantic life.
Anais continues to begin each day as before as she powders her face, paints her eyelashes, brushes her hair a hundred brush strokes, dresses simply but beautifully, reads the newspaper, listens to the radio.
She feels the war is caused by selfishness and egos and hatred and corruption. She does not feel part of the crime, though she is forced to share in the punishment. She watches the beautiful, individually perfect world she created for herself crumble. She watches as individual wars between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters culminate in a collective war between nations.
Her husband is ordered back to the United States; it is time to leave for New York.
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