His Excellency President Chamoun and his lady wife, with the members of the Lebanese delegation and the body of Cardinals at the Vatican, shortly before their audience with His Holiness the Pope
The First Lady of Lebanon aboard the ship on her way back to Lebanon.
If, dear reader, you are among those who do not believe in the warmth of blue eyes, a day must come when you change your mind. I came to believe in it — magnetism and warmth — after sitting yesterday with Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun. And there passed through my mind the blessing of perfect elegance of appearance in the persons of His Excellency our President and his lady wife at one and the same time!
She received me in her salon, with the utmost simplicity and taste, and went on talking with me for an
hour and a quarter while bent over unstitching a black dress of hers. She loves it, she said, and whenever she loves a dress she works it over, however old it may be, to bring it back fit to wear... One of the witty persons present teased her with a light wink: "Have you ever heard of a President of the Republic who darns his socks and towels?" — and broad smiles spread over the faces. The First Lady of Lebanon answered him with a proud toss of her beautiful blond head: "These are the State's towels; we received them by count, and
by count we shall hand them back, and there is no shutting one's eyes to mending them when the need arises... And besides, how am I to fill my spare time when I am at home?"
There was in the ring of her voice an abundance of femininity and warmth of feeling! "She is a lady..." I whispered within myself — and we passed at once to the subject of the visit.
— The Woman's Voice desires, Your Ladyship, a talk about your personal impressions of your double official visit to Italy
and Turkey.
— I fear my personal impressions are very few; our journey was nothing but a chain of ceremonies and noisy official receptions. Wherever we alighted, whether in Italy or in Turkey, we met the warmest of welcomes. But official persons such as ourselves are seldom given the chance to enjoy such journeys as they please. They are always in the thick of a strict protocol. If it occurred to me, for instance, to slip down to the market on the sly to buy something, I