tumbling loose!

That is what happened in the past, of course, and bygones are bygones! One never tires of stories like these, however often one turns them over in memory... stories of innocent recklessness and impromptu child-hood enmities!

Mona would lead the demonstrations on national occasions, and she took part in charitable works of every kind in the days of the Palestine catastrophe: she went about with her sisters Alia and Lamia and some colleagues, young men and women, collecting donations for the refugees of Palestine; she was likewise among those who organized Palestine Day in past years; and often Mona would visit the refugee camps with some companions, men and women, to distribute among them the clothes, food, and money she had gathered for them.

Thus Mona, like her sisters, took part in charitable and patriotic works, and she was distinguished by her strong personality and her boldness in expressing her opinions. At school she kept steadily at her lessons, even if she sometimes grumbled at how many they were.

She is one of those who face accomplished facts and do not fear what the future holds hidden. With her friends she is merry, "lovable," quick-witted, quick with a joke — like her father before her. She has also mastered the art of imitat-ing certain Lebanese dialects: she speaks in the accent of the mountain folk and of the people of Basta in Beirut with an astonishing skill in which only Alia and Lamia can keep up with her — but she shows that hobby of hers only to her friends!

And Mona is one of those elegant

women whom the fashions do not enslave... she wears what suits her, not what suits the mannequins of "Jacques Fath" and the whims of "Christian Dior."

I will not dwell on the news of her marriage and its story, for the news-papers and magazines have expati-ated in speaking of it... and whatever news passes among people's tongues and pens, they magnify it, color it, and pepper it, whether they know it or not. And we Easterners love to pepper everything — even what we hear or what we say!!

As for Mona's future, it is not entirely fixed — and why not, when all people hold that the future truly rests in God's hand — except that she will live in Riyadh part of the time and come back to Lebanon the rest, where the palace of "al-Riyad" at Louaizeh awaits her. She is, in any case, most optimistic and hopeful about her future... for she is one of those who distinguish between what is worn out among the traditions and what deserves respect and regard. And many think the opposite. So tell them, Mona, that there is no longer any fortified aris-tocracy drunk on grandeur, blinded by glory, and made idle by gold! Tell them that princedom is a giving that will not tire and a bounty that will not run dry... tell them that you will not live for your palaces alone.

The picture of your marriage in most of their minds is a gleaming diamond necklace, a rare ring the girls sigh for, and a blazing crown that fore-heads dream of wearing. So hasten to replace that picture in their minds — for you have wanted, from the beginning, the meaning of your marriage to be far more than that...