This brought chuckles of disbelief from all those in the group. But he was right. You did never know who was listening. I found myself thinking about Franz. Henry might be right about Franz reporting to Germany on what was happening in Venice.

I tried to put worrying thoughts from my mind and to make the most of my last few classes. The radio was saying that the war was like two boxers getting into a ring, sizing each other up before any blow would be launched. So there was time to take a train home across France before Hitler or the Allies made any significant move. From what I had heard in church, Britain was not equipped to launch any offensive against Germany. We didn’t have the weapons or the manpower to face the Nazi might.

At lunch Gaston talked about going home. “I must do my duty and join the French army, I suppose,” he said. He said it with bravado, but I saw the utter despair in his eyes. “Not that we have much chance against Germany. I just pray it’s not a repeat of the last war and that we don’t all die in the trenches.”

We sat in silence, pondering this. Then Imelda said, “I think I’ll stay. My parents are talking about going up to the hills, to Basque country, just in case. What would I do there? Where could I go? At least Italy isn’t going to declare war on anybody for a while.”

“That’s what I think,” Henry said. His Italian had obviously improved to the point that he could understand the gist of conversations. “America is keeping out of this war, so I think I’ll stick around and finish my year abroad.”

“Just pray you can get home again when the German U-boats start patrolling the Atlantic,” Imelda said drily.

He shrugged. “Then I’ll go to Switzerland and wait until it’s over. No one will touch Switzerland, will they? Or Australia? Australia would be good.” He looked at me. “What about you?” He switched to English. “Do you want to go home and risk Germany invading?”

“I don’t want to go,” I said, “but I feel obliged to. My mother will worry terribly if I’m far away. She didn’t want me to come in the first place, but my aunt agreed to stay with her. I suppose I must check to see if trains are still running normally across France and the ferries are still crossing the Channel.”

“It’s too bad, when we are finally settling into our routine here and the classes are so interesting,” Henry said. “I feel I’ve learned more in a few weeks than I did in all the art classes I took at home.”

“Me too,” I said. “I really hate to go.”