A vision of grace and refined beauty, strutting and gliding... so appeared most of the ladies invited to Mona al-Solh's wedding party, in their glittering, flowing evening gowns.

Beauty sat enthroned in the halls of the "Normandy" that night and spread its wings everywhere... in the decorated corners... on the laughing mirrors... around the baskets of roses and lilies... on the walls... among the folds of the gowns, and in the faces and necks and wrists...

The bride was the sweetest of the evening's sweet ones; in her magnificent gown she looked like one of the houris of paradise, and at her side stood the prince of her dreams, Talal, the two of them together receiving congratulations and good wishes with a broad, serene smile and laughing glances. Around her were the bride's beautiful sisters and the maids of honor, and beside her sat Mona's mother, Mrs. Fayza, joyful and sorrowful at once, like every mother at such a moment... her string of pearls has begun to come unstrung, and there is no help for it.

The guests stayed on past midnight, chatting and convers-ing around tables laden with every delicacy. As for the bride, she slipped away quietly, after passing before the guests to bid them farewell in a charming procession in which walked the maids of honor, her sisters, and some members of her family.

•

It is easy for me to speak of Mona, for we grew up together in one school — Alia, Lamia, Mona, and I — and Mona was the youngest among us: the youngest in years, not in mind! For she used to captain her companions, forming from them a strong band that remained in feud, quarrel, and war with the boys of the school (the Laïque school for girls). Many a time some of those warriors would come home in a state to be pitied and wept over... by the mothers, of course! This one had lost the sleeves of his shirt entirely... that one had torn his clothes and looked like one of the war's vagabonds, and that girl had lost her red hair ribbon and her braids had come