concluded.. And the three months of summer passed over us beautiful.. splendid.. every minute of them a great entertainment in itself.. parties, and receptions, and guests, and well-wishers; of all the many members of our family one troop arrives and one troop departs; and roses, and gifts.. and gifts, and roses.. and drinks poured out.. and sugared almonds passed round, and trills of joy pealing.. And Salah.. Salah of the seventeen years seizes a chance and presses Samia's hand.. and Samia, glitter-ing with a new radiance, returns his greeting with a kiss from her eyes. And I.. I notice and see.. and I thrill and quiver..

And the school year drew on, and the whole household traveled with our aunt and Salah to Alexandria to see him off at the harbor, and of course they took Samia with them.. with her gold ring.. her betrothal ring.. turning it and turning it upon her finger, or talking with her eye upon it, or setting her hand so as to show people that small golden circle which held within its narrow round all her hopes, her dreams, and her affections..

And they left me in the vast house with Umm Wahiba. And on that day, as I waved to them all before the car sped off with them, in that moment I felt that I was no longer I; and I dragged my feet, walking slowly, and threw myself down dazed on a sofa in a dark corner. I was feeling.. feeling — what was I feeling? Strange new things that vexed me.. troubled me, as though tribes upon dense tribes of ants were crawling with their hairy

legs across my chest, tickling me.. stirring me. Until I thought there must be a flea in my clothes, and I took them off and put on clean ones instead, to no avail. The same creeping.. the same tickling; so I shuddered.. quivered, and when I could bear no more I hurried to our bedroom and locked myself in. Then, before the mirror, for the first time in an age.. I stood contemplating myself..

I was all but thunderstruck; I was like one gazing at a stranger — I even opened my eyes and shut them once.. and twice, nay three times.. The earth spun with me, and a lightness enfolded me, as though I were dreaming or walking on air. For my eyes.. my staring, bold eyes — their sharpness was broken now, and, wonder of wonders, they were clothed with that look of the dreaming gazelle.. And my ears filled with soft.. intoxicating melodies, welling up from my depths as though my senses were playing them.. And my mouth.. its two rosy lips had parted like a fruit ripened and split open. And I saw, breathless with amaze-ment — and what a wonder was what I saw — I saw the muscles of my arms, which I had toiled to raise night and day with violent athletic exercises, and lifting Umm Wahiba's iron flatirons, and climbing the bedposts and hanging from them, dangling by my legs like the monkeys — these muscles of mine had melted quite away, and the skin over them had grown soft.. and rounded..

And another thing drove me out of my wits. It was my chemise.. my chemise, as though.. as though two small lemons had been hidden beneath it.. My first feeling toward them was shame..

a harsh shame.. bitter. It shook me to the roots, and I fell upon them, pressing them, that they might go in again.. might vanish; and my attempt did not succeed, of course.. The blood mounted to my head, and a thousand questions, a thousand problems, went leaping before me like frogs.. Umm Wahiba — would she still come into the bath with me to help me? Impossible. Impossible.. And then the piercing, penetrating glances all around me — how should I bear them.. and above all my mother.. my mother, whose gaze bores through my clothes, and my skin, and my flesh, and my bones to my very entrails, even from her calm seat? And then if I fell ill, and our old doctor Bernard came to exam-ine me — how.. how.. what should I do then?.. And then.. and then.

And my problems gathered together, and danced before me like the demons, taunting me, bewildering me.. tightening the noose about me. And I flung myself upon my bed and burst out weeping.. and weeping..

(The End)

The hypnotist was displaying his tricks before the audience. He said: — Let one of the ladies come up onto the stage and sit on this chair, and I shall make her disappear at once... Hardly had he finished speaking when one of the spectators cried out: — Please wait a moment while I fetch my mother-in-law from the house...

The post-office clerk: I should

like to know why you refuse to pay more than half the radio tax? The radio owner: Because I hear with only one ear.