Ameen Rihani

I confess my fault: I was remiss. I believed as everyone believed. I believed the stored-up rumors when May was brought from Cairo, and I refrained from visiting her... And when I asked after May, I was told that she was in the Rebeiz hospital. One day I rose, with May's name on my lips and in my heart..., and I came to the hospital, and I said to the nurse: I am Ameen Rihani; I want to visit May without asking leave. She smiled and walked before me, and I arrived.

It was a joy for me... I had expected to meet an emaciated woman, and found myself before a woman whose face betrayed no trace of wasting.

I greeted her and sat down... May hastened to cover her bare forearm, then drew up the cover and turned her face away from me.

I spoke to her, apologizing for my remissness; she turned her face to look at me askance, then closed her eyes and remained still. I understood what lay behind the silence. I grasped the meaning of the seal upon her lips, and I tried to overcome it, but did not succeed.