Arab Americans -- Fiction; Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
"In the morning of the eventful day," it is set forth in the _Histoire
Intime_, "I was in Khalid's room writing a letter, when Ahmed Bey
comes in to confer with him. They remain together for some while
during which I could hear Khalid growl and Ahmed Bey gently
whispering, 'But the Dastur, the Unionists, Mother Society,'--this
being the burden of his song. When he leaves, Khalid, with a scowl on
his brow, paces up and down the room, saying, 'They would treat me
like a school boy; they would have me speak by rule, and according to
their own dictation. They even espy my words and actions as if I were
an enemy of the Constitution. No; let them find another. The servile
spouters in the land are as plenty as summer flies. After I deliver my
address to-day, Shakib, we will take the first train for Baalbek. I
want to see my mother. No, billah! I can not go any further with these
Turks. Why, read this.' And he hands me the memorandum, or outline of
the speech given to him by Ahmed Bey."
And this, we learn, is a litany of praises, beginning with Abd'ul-Hamid
and ending with the ulema of Damascus; which litany the Society
Deputies would place in the mouth of Khalid for the good of all
concerned. Ay, for his good, too, if he but knew. If he but looked
behind him, he would have yielded a whit, this Khalid. The deep chasm
between him and the Deputy, however, justifies the conduct of each
on his side: the lack of gumption in the one and the lack of depth in
the other render impossible any sort of understanding between them.
While we recommend, therefore, the prudence of the oleaginous Ahmed,
we can not with justice condemn the perversity of our fretful Khalid.
For he who makes loud boast of spiritual freedom, is, nevertheless, a
slave of the Idea. And slavery in some shape or shade will clutch at
the heart of the most powerful and most developed of mortals. Poor
Khalid! if Truth commands thee to destroy the memorandum of Ahmed
Bey, Wisdom suggests that thou destroy, too, thine address. And
Wisdom in the person of Sheikh Taleb now knocks at thy door.
The Sheikh is come to admonish Khalid, not to return his visit. For at
this hour of the day he should have been a-bed; but his esteem for
Mrs. Gotfry, billah, his love, too, for her friend Khalid, and his
desire to avert a possible danger, banish sleep from his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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