Perfume and Pastry

War has been hard on the elite of Bucharest. The full and ample bellies of the great have shrunk. Once Bucharest had no peer in the confection of flaky pastries stuffed with creams, no rival in the sticky sweet aroma of the boulevards and bright cafes, aswarm with men & women who perfumed themselves instead of taking baths.

Today the food is plain and most of the well-sprung limousines are up on blocks. Rouge and a touch of the eyebrow pencil help to keep the officers looking smart, but in their hearts they know that soon they will have to fight or run away. The Russians are over the Prut; the end of an era cannot be far.

Dimly old Marshal Ion Antonescu senses that things are not turning out as he had thought when he made his deal with the Germans. He still sits hunched behind his oversized desk in his oversized office; he still speaks respectfully of the thoughts and wishes of the Marshal, meaning his own. He still turns now & again to admire the full length portrait of his younger self which hangs behind his chair, and to dream of the time (1941) when he led his troops into Odessa. But no longer does he really believe that brutal, brassy Baron Manfred von Killinger, Hitler's resident emissary, is serious when he asks for the Marshal's advice.

Far more clearly does Vice Premier Mihai Antonescu (no kin) grasp the coming catastrophe. Younger, and unhampered by erratic thoughts, Mihai Antonescu has a simple plan: if the Anglo-Saxons remain deaf to every whispered invitation to come into Rumania--then quick! To the airport! A plane is waiting to take the supple second in command to Turkey and internment.

For rich Rumanians who cannot command a plane, the immediate future is black indeed. And to add to their discomfort, they catch more & more sly grins on peasant faces. The peasants, who have nothing to lose in the flight of Rumania's mighty, have nothing to fear from Russia's Red Army. In Rumania recently, the clash and clatter has been less the preparation for battle than the headlong stampede of the wealthy and great for visas and seats on the outbound trains.

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