whole town and its surroundings — indeed, in all Lebanon, if we believe what many said of him, that “God created him and then raised His hand.” Tall of stature, full of body, white of skin, round of face, his fairness watered by the blood of youth. In his eyes life laughed, and in his small mustache appeared the strength of self-reliance and self-confidence and pride in what he had done and would yet do in this world. He left his parents when he was eighteen years old. He came to America, prospered in trade, and amassed a fortune of some two thousand liras in a short time. And he found time meanwhile to spend on cultivating himself: he studied and learned and attained what thousands of Lebanese and Syrian emigrants do not attain in tens of years. Then he answered his parents’ summons, returned to Lebanon, and built a splendid house — the finest house in the whole town — and opened a new business. All this before he had passed his twenty-fifth year. The people of the town spoke of his diligence, his intelligence, his

gentleness, and the amiability of his character. He neither swore nor cursed; he did not blaspheme religion, did not get drunk, did not gamble, and did not smoke. He called every old man in the town “grandfather” and every old woman “grandmother,” every older man “uncle” and every older woman “auntie,” every young man “brother” and every girl “sister.” He greeted the child and greeted the old man before they could greet him first, and he lifted his hat from his head with esteem and reverence when he greeted women.

And how many of the young men present envied Aziz al-Kirbaj in the depths of their hearts and wished they were in his clothes that night! Some relate on the authority of Father Boulos that this venerable and respected elder confessed that in the fifty years he had spent in the service of the Church he had not once desired to exchange his priestly garb for all the wealth of the world; but when he bade the bridal pair, Aziz al-Kirbaj and Jamileh al-Bishtawi, exchange the kiss of love, in that

minute he wished he were in the bridegroom’s clothes!

As for Jamileh al-Bishtawi, apart from her enchanting beauty she possessed qualities rarely gathered in one girl in all that neighborhood or elsewhere. If talk turned upon her in any gathering whatever — whether a gathering of women or of men, or of men and women together — the first thing tongues took up was her marvelous beauty; then the talkers passed on to her disposition, her learning, and her wealth. One says she is an angel, the earth does not feel her tread; another adds that she is “learned,” meaning that she finished a girls’ boarding school “and took the certificate.”

A third continues, saying that she is an only child and that her father left her at his death broad properties and a “chest” of money. A fourth adds that she will inherit all her uncle’s properties, for she is his sole heir. No wonder, then, that her wedding to Aziz al-Kirbaj remained the subject of the men’s and women’s gatherings in the town for at least a week.