ABSTRACT
That gangplank transported us from destitution and poverty to luxury and wealth. Most of the passengers on deck—American expatriates and privileged French on “capitalists’ affidavits”—were saying their wistful good-byes to the continent. I felt like Cinderella: my dreams of escape had come true. But I remained apprehensive: the Atlantic was peppered with highly explosive mines; England was suffering from the Blitz; and the purser was bemoaning his ship’s bygone days of glitz.
