he wished to take as a husband for you. What became of that boy, and what is his name?"

Haifa sighed, suddenly recalling the conversation that had passed between her and Adnan before her coming to Damascus, and asked him: "Does Your Excellency mean Adnan?"

— Yes, the very one.

— After he was graduated from the university, the fire of war broke out in Palestine. He recruited some two hundred men, and they went to Palestine to fight. They were short of equipment and arms, yet they fought like heroes until their ammunition ran out; his men began to fall away from him one after another, and in the end only his personal guard remained with him, and he came back to the village broken-hearted and dejected. Since then he has given himself over to working his land. It seems that the state in which they returned from Palestine affected him profoundly, and bred in his soul and in his way of thinking a kind of aversion and disgust.

The Minister asked her: "Did none of the previous governments try to profit by his culture, his ardor, and his blazing patri-otic spirit?"

— No one approached him, and he made no attempt to approach them.

The Minister said thoughtfully, with evident regret: "I understand. To this day we do not know how to draw on the wealth of manhood in our country. May I put a personal question to you?"

— Your Excellency is entirely free to do so.

— What is your opinion of him?

Haifa, her face suffused with the blush of shyness, answered: "I have understood what Your Excellency is

driving at. Let me make it clear to you that I bound myself to him in a certain matter before coming to Damascus. Nor will I conceal that among the fancies that have taken hold of me, I set before my eyes that my husband should be a high official of the state — not out of any desire for the power that goes with office, but so as to help him in building the edifice of our homeland. I told Adnan, in a tone nearer jest than earnest, that I would marry him if he became an official, and I gave him half a year to accomplish it."

The Minister said, delighted: "Bravo! But I do not think Adnan was jesting when he spoke to you of the matter. And I beg you not to forget that before that conversation he had a long meeting with the qaimaqam at your district seat."

Haifa's eyes widened at the Minister's words until they nearly leapt from their sockets. She started; her mouth fell open; she craned her neck and stared at the Minister, the surprise tying her tongue; then, gasping, she said: "How did Your Excellency know that?"

The Minister said to her: "I received a report today from the qaimaqam on this subject."

Haifa asked hesitantly: "And may I know the reason for Adnan's visit to the qaimaqam?"

The Minister answered her with a smile: "Ah — that is one of the secrets of the state, and you shall learn it in due time. But what am I to tell Mansour Bey?"

Haifa said: "If you want frank-ness, I prefer to wait — if it is true that Adnan is to become an official."

The Minister asked her: "And if he does not?"

Haifa found herself in an awkward position. Her ambitions and her dreams stood on the

point of fulfillment; the chance of realizing her desire to marry an official of the state had presented itself, and all she need do now was nod her head in assent. Yet at that moment she found herself prey to conflicting feelings. Should she refuse an intelligent man and a high official like Mansour Bey? Or should she wait for Adnan and trust to fortune, which might or might not favor him? Her future, her life, and her happiness lay in the scale of fate. She thought long, and perceived that she harbored no love for Mansour Bey, though she had admired him.

And when she reflected on her past with Adnan in the village, and on her intense love for the land — a land which, by all the laws of nature, was bound fast to Adnan himself — she found that her life without him, and without the land she adored, would be hollow and empty! Her reflection whispered to her that fate had a hand in her life and in Adnan's. She looked up at the Minister, and felt at that moment a great strength, a power to face a whole army, and said: "I shall wait for him in any case."

The Minister said: "In that case, we let the curtain fall on the chapter of Mansour Bey."

Haifa passed that night sleep-less, without tasting slumber. She rose early in the morning and went to the dining room to take her breakfast, and hardly had she reached the door of the room when she saw Adnan coming toward her, a porter at his side carrying his baggage and his rifle in its leather case. Adnan came up to her, saying: "How beautiful this morning is! You are the first of all the people of Damascus I have met."

— She asked him, smiling: