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pope never saw them again . . . this pope lived at the Simplon too, in the kitchen! . . . he was part of the Valley . . . pending better days the authorities put him up at the hotel . . . he showed people through the church now and then . . . Uli, me, Bébert, and Madame von Dopf got him to talk a litle . . . before going on to the"rose garden" . . . that's where the promenade ended . . . ever since the Romans . . . the first Baths . . . it's ended there . . . you must rest a while . . . the "rose garden" wants no tramps! no goof-off bottle washers . . . no picnickers! . . . the "rose garden" is open only to the better class of strollers . . . the flowers have been there since Tiberius . . .

Boskets . . . arbors . . . roses . . . glowing pastels . . . beyond belief . . . there we were on a marble bench . . . Madame von Dopf telling us again about her stays in China, with her husband the general, the brilliant reorganizer of Mao's army . . . that baneful little clown wouldn't have lased two months without him! . . . ah, Monsieur Céline, believe me! . . . her husband in such a place!
    "You know, Monsieur Céline, the Devil triumphs because the people who know him well are gone . . . that Adolf, for instance . . . he can do just as he pleases! no one to fear! . . . another solitary devil! . . ."
    I myself had been thinking that things were going from bad to worse . . . this Madame von Dopf was nuts, but not far from wrong I'd say . . . No news from my mother . . . or anybody else . . . a little over the radio . . . barricades going up in Paris . . . the staff of the Simplon kept in touch via Lausanne . . . . the whole town for that matter . . . croupiers, manicurists, shopkeepers, the Legationsrat himself, our Führer . . . all of them convinced that "Radio-Sottens" ° was a good deal more reliable than "Télé-Gobbels" . . . Schulze, our Führer , didn't come out openly for the Allies, but after every really big defeat he ordered a high Mass at the Casino church, he and his family took communion . . . why not? . . . we were there in that enchanted spot thinking things over . . . in between the roses, Madame von Dopf pointed out the site . . . a few bricks were still standing . . . of the "Pavilion of the Philosophers" . . . where Grimm, Madame de Staël, and Constant met every morning . . . Madame von Dopf had come here as a little girl, she knew every bush, every path, all the mazes, the despair of governesses . . .
    I know something of China too . . . Italy . . . and Spain . . . and Monte Carlo . . . I've got to admit, Monsieur Céline, that I've been spoiled . . . as no one is today . . . not even a queen! I have no qualms about saying . . . it's all over . . . even a queen by divine right has to think of public opinion . . . even the most coddled millionairess has her "daily report" . . . her chambermaid keeps it up very carefully . . . every little folly of her mistress, gala dinners, lovers, miscarriages, all out in the open. . . the times have changed!. . . more fragile than Mary Stuart! more beset than Marie-Antoinette . . . and yet, Monsieur Céline, ignorant I am and ignorant I will die . . . stupid me! . . . I shall leave behind me a bill in more than four figures . . . I am lost!
    Lili, I must say, Lili, the dancer, found it quite natural that I should check over the bills . . .
    How preposterous it was! . . . we were enjoying ourselves! . . . and what fine weather! . . . hot but breezy . . . weather fit for Paradise. . .
    I, always a worrier, never relishing the passing moment, seeing no one about, neither under the arches nor oh the lawns, I wondered . . . the wherefore of this silence . . . especially at eleven in the morning, the family hour . . . in such weather . . . our rose garden so fragrant . . . unbearable! . . . that Lili, usually so timid, asked Madame von Dopf if we couldn't move on to that other bench . . . under the plane trees, in the shade . . . Madame von Dopf was telling us how when she was a