Housewarming

Bella Vista was named by an optimist. The outlook from the white cubical villa, surmounted by four grotesque chimneys, is gloomy. Ancient, vine-tangled trees surround it like careless sentinels. The great cast-iron gate is rusty."

A Portuguese retainer was trying to encourage a kitchen fire with damp wood when the little family arrived. The children goggled at the medieval stove, whimpered and wept. (Maria had forgotten her pet poodle and a friend in Lisbon had given her a strange setter; Mamma had forgotten her passport, but that had been taken care of, too.) There was no central heating or electricity--Bella Vista hadn't been occupied for 100 years, save for a brief stay in 1942 by Dom Duarte, pretender of the House of Braganza. At nightfall, kerosene lamps cast shadows of the spindly Empire furniture against the walls.

In the morning the retainer answered the door, was told by a swarthy, heavy-browed man: "I am Dr. Salazar. Please announce me to the Countess of Sarre."*Thus Maria Jose, Italy's Queen for May, and her four children arrived in exile at Cintra, and were greeted by Portugal's Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

*Ousted Umberto II, who joined his family five days later., took for his exile the title of Count of Sarre after an ancient castle of the Savoys in Piedmont.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.