The words came out slowly, haltingly, as if they had cost him a struggle. Nan had noticed before now that anger was too big a garment for him; it always hung on him in uneasy folds.

Wharton was a committed supporter of French imperialism describing herself as a "rabid imperialist" and the war solidified her political conservatism. In 1908 her husband's mental state was determined to be incurable. She called the villa "Sainte-Claire du Chateau" and filled the garden with cacti and subtropical plants.