complete. As for the speed of carrying the project through to the end, that depends solely on the materials being delivered as promptly as required; laboring hands are plentiful.
And we turned back, our course set for Amman, while the wounded dusk was passing through colors of lapis, shadows and lights swimming over the red hills... fairies of light dancing on bare feet upon the glow of the earth, hastening toward the distant mirage...
... In Amman
As my eye takes in Amman at first glance, it seems to me that we are in a Baghdad in miniature — were it not for mountains rising out of her folds, spread over with stone mansions in the newest style: beautiful mansions racing one another up the shoulders of the bare mountains around Amman with astonishing speed, casting over her an air of breadth and spaciousness, and persuading the mind that the capital of Jordan keeps pace with the times on feet long accustomed to walking!!
I open my eyes the next morning with a visit to Raghadan Palace at the head of my program. Was not my first aim in this journey to answer the gracious invitation extended to me by Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Queen Misbah?!
Getting in touch with the Queen Mother's wing at Raghadan Palace was not the easy matter it seemed to me at first sight, and but for the energy of Mr. Mohammad al-Baradei I should not have secured that audience with the required speed... Within minutes I was listening to the voice of Her Majesty Queen Misbah on the telephone:
"Edvick — you come to Amman and are not our guest at the palace? We have made a room ready for you."
"You must forgive me, Madam; we are a party, and courtesy requires that we stay together. If Her Majesty commands, let her appoint me a time for the honor of calling upon her."
"Let it be twelve o'clock today — we shall lunch together. I will send the
car with the aide to the hotel at the appointed time."
"Thank you, 'Sitti.'"
Four Hours in "Raghadan" Palace
... At the appointed hour I found myself in the salon of the Queen Mother, in her private wing of Raghadan Palace. My eyes were devouring everything... a salon lavish in its spaciousness, furnished with green velvet seats, its walls adorned with royal faces that I knew at once! — This is Sharif Nasser, father of Queen Misbah and uncle of His Majesty King Abdullah... In the place of honor, King Hussein, her uncle. This is a recent portrait of King Talal, and these are Their Majesties: Abdullah, Ali, Faisal, Ghazi, and the young Faisal... The palace garden below the salon's balcony was beginning to break into greenery and blossoms... and on a ban-tree bough a nightingale stood singing and calling! I marveled at him, daring all alone to sing in that silent, brooding air!!
The course of my thoughts is cut short by the fall of light footsteps and a voice full of will and of resolve. I spring to my feet to
meet the owner of the voice, and with a smile and a graceful jest she raises me up from her hand, inquiring, searching for a trace of rouge! — and when she is assured there is none, she turns her cheek to me and I kiss it with a daughter's kiss. Then she sits down at my side, not in her own royal seat, asking and I answering, and our talk ranges over all manner of subjects.
... Her eyes overflowed with tears when she spoke at length of her only son and his wife — of the present King and Queen. She recalled King Talal's respect for her and his devotion to her: he never ceases to look after her comfort himself, seeking her approval and her prayers before all else. "Did he not forbid the policeman to halt my car while he himself passed?.. This ring — he put it on me with his own hand, saying: 'This is a keepsake from me, ya Anna...' And this carpet is his gift too; Queen Zein spread it with her own hands — God keep her and grant her health. She is now on a trip of rest to Switzerland, where her firstborn, the Crown Prince, Emir Hussein, at present at 'Harrow' University, will fly to her from England."
In "Karameh Camp," where the International Relief Agency is helping some two thousand refugee women to revive handicrafts and to learn sewing, weaving, and household management.