Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun in her salon, talking with Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub
... In the President's House
... I do not feel like a stranger in the house of President Camille Chamoun. The atmosphere is calm and serene, and everything in the house is friendly and familiar: the old maidservant beams at us, and even the rooms of the house are not locked against us. Dr. Edma Abouchdid, the family's close friend, knows everything about this house and about the ways of its people. And now we are alone, waiting for Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun, for lunchtime has drawn near and
she is bound to return from the Presidential Palace, where she is personally supervising the work of cleaning it and breathing life back into it.
The house is tidy and elegant, and in every one of its corners there is some artistic touch that bespeaks a refined taste. But the Doctor assures me that this is a disfigured version of the house as it really is: the curtains, the carpets, and the unique objets d'art are all away for the summer, and efforts at present are directed toward readying the
Palace... Yet despite all these excuses, the house remained, in the eye of the exacting critic, that beautiful, restful corner where anyone would wish he could sink into one of its seats for a few minutes!
I steal a glance into Mrs. Zalfa's bedroom... The prevailing color is brown, and the sheer, soft curtains are cream-colored... Perhaps it is summer that has stripped the room of every picture — save one small picture of the Virgin, and