class="book">•^••

Roerich hinted at his future direction in a letter from this time to Ivan Bilibin, who had written from Cairo, seeking advice about whether he should remain in Egypt or go back to Europe. Roerich suggested to Bilibin that he put the West behind him. "There, the twilight of the gods is drawing

•^••

Failure in Manchuria was not the only trou­ble weighing Roerich down as he trudged on to Tientsin. Bad news had been arriving from New York, Washington, and Paris.

•^••

The first eight months of 1939 were re­plete with anxiety for millions throughout the globe. Springtime brought with it the German occupation of rump Czechoslo­vakia and the Lithuanian port of Memel, as well as Italy's conquest of Albania. Over