two rabbits, and called Farida and Zahra, and her mother came too. Each rabbit went off in a different direction, hiding among the plant-ings and then appearing again; at last one of them jumped over the low wall into the neighbors' garden, and the second vanished

as though the jinn had snatched him away.

Farida went back to the kitchen to finish her work — and then her cry went up:

— The cat has eaten the sambousek meat!

Salwa's father came home for lunch, and when they sat down at the table the mother began telling him what had happened with the rabbits that morning. He tried to defend his daughter, saying:

— Her love of finding things out...

— Her love of finding things out? You said that when she took the alarm clock apart and ruined it to see how it runs. You are always spoiling her and you never refuse her a request. The cup has run over: she is not staying up with us tonight; she will go to bed at eight o'clock.

Then he seated her close beside him, and began serving her all the good kinds of 'mezze.'

A little later Salwa slipped down from her chair and followed Zahra to the kitchen:

— Did my uncle bring presents?

— Yes.

— Where are they?

— I don't know; your mother took them.

Salwa went straight to her mother's room and switched on the electric light. Nothing on the table, nothing on the seat, nothing on the bed... Ah — in the wardrobe. She opened the wardrobe: there, on the top shelf, were two boxes. In the first were a leather handbag and a pair of gloves for her mother, so she put it back in its place and opened the second, which was bigger than the first. Her heart danced with delight when she saw what she had wished for from the bottom of her heart: a toy table service of beautiful white porcelain — the flat plates and the hollow plates, the soup tureen, the little oblong dishes for olives and cheese, and the tiny salt cellar.

Just then she heard footsteps coming toward her mother's room; she grew flustered, her hands

shook, and the box fell to the floor with a great crash, and the plates shattered into a thousand pieces.

Salwa woke to the sound of talk and laughter and the clatter of plates and glasses. She remem-bered that tonight was the evening party to welcome her uncle. She had been made to eat her supper early and go to bed at eight o'clock, before the guests arrived. She was still fuming, wishing she might somehow take her revenge.

Suddenly an idea comes to her: she will watch the party in spite of her mother's order! She jumps out of her bed, throws a coat over her shoulders, and slips into the dining room by the door that opens onto the kitchen, where the servants

come in, and sits in a corner in the shadow of the big buffet, where she can see everything and no one takes notice of her.

Suddenly they all burst out laughing together, because her uncle has told a joke she did not understand — but she laughs along with them, so happy is she just to be there...

Now her father sees her:

— Salwa, you here?

— I just woke up and I don't feel like sleeping.

Her mother wanted to send her back to her bed, but her uncle interceded with her mother and said, after kissing Salwa:

— Let her stay up with us — 'for my sake.'

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General agency for Syria and Lebanon

The East Mediterranean Company

Khan Antoun Bey — Beirut