words, and my manner of speaking and persuading won them over. I sat with them and answered their questions with perfect ease and cheerfulness, and the conversation turned to all manner of familiar things. But before long I felt my color turn pale, and I wished they would leave the house as quickly as possible. Only a short while passed before I felt a dizziness in my head and imagined that I heard a ringing in my ears.
I do not doubt that my color was pale at that moment; yet in spite of it my speech grew more fluent, and my tones grew louder and clearer — and the ringing answered, more and more. What was I to do? The answering sound was like the ticking of a watch wrapped in a piece of cotton. I began to gasp audibly, but the officers did not hear me. Then I began to talk rapidly, and still the ringing rang on, loud and continuous. I said to myself: their errand is finished — why do they not go? I rose and began pacing the room to and fro, muttering, foaming and fuming, cursing and swearing. Then I seized my chair and began to swing it through the air of the room. I struck the floorboards with it and it shattered upon them; but even that did not stop the ringing from going on, until I imagined it had drowned out everything — and the officers chatted on and laughed, wholly absorbed in their talk. Is it possible that they heard nothing? No — oh, my agony — they heard, and they suspected, and they knew. That is what I believed and what I thought, and think still: they were watching the measure of the terror I was suffering. I could no longer endure the sight of their laughter, behind which lay hypocrisy and deceit, and I felt that I must either scream or die. Hark! The ringing has grown louder, moment by moment, until
it has drowned every other sound in the room. Then I sprang up, shouting at the top of my voice:
You villains! Enough of your trickery and dissembling! I confess my deed. Tear up these planks,
here and there — this ringing is nothing but the throbbing of the murdered man's terrified heart; it is nothing but the ringing of my tormented conscience.
The New Hoover Model
At last
The new Hoover model
Hoover "DE LUXE" 612
Price: 270 Lebanese lira, complete with cleaning attachments
General agents: Henri Hebeld & Co. — Bab Idriss
Distributors in Lebanon:
Mr. Krikor Malikian — Avenue des Français — Beirut
Messrs. Hayek & Nahhas — Patriarch Hoyek Street — Beirut
Messrs. Kassab & Rizk — Patriarch Hoyek Street — Beirut