Arab Americans -- Fiction; Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
To all of which Khalid acquiesces by referring as is his wont to the
infinite wisdom of Allah, in whose all-seeing eye nothing is
impossible.
And thus, apparently satisfied, he takes the cigarette which she had
lighted for him, and lights for her another from his own. But the
smoke of two cigarettes dispels not the threatening cloud; it only
conceals it from view. For they dine together at a Bohemian Club that
evening, where Khalid meets a woman of rare charms. And she invites
him to her studio. The Medium, who is at first indifferent, finally
warns her callow child. "That woman is a writer," she explains, "and
writers are always in search of what they call 'copy.' She in
particular is a huntress of male curiosities, _originales_, whom she
takes into her favour and ultimately surrenders them to the reading
public. So be careful." But Khalid hearkens not. For the writer, whom
he afterwards calls a flighter, since she, too, "like the van of the
brewer only skims the surface of things," is, in fact, younger than
the Medium. Ay, this woman is even beautiful--to behold, at least. So
the Dervish, a captive of her charms, knocks at the door of her studio
one evening and enters. Ah, this then is a studio! "I am destined to
know everything, and to see everything," he says to himself, smiling
in his heart.
The charming hostess, in a Japanese kimono receives him somewhat
orientally, offering him the divan, which he occupies alone for a
spell. He is then laden with a huge scrap-book containing press
notices and reviews of her many novels. These, he is asked to go
through while she prepares the tea. Which is a mortal task for the
Dervish in the presence of the Enchantress. Alas, the tea is long in
the making, and when the scrap-book is laid aside, she reinforces him
with a lot of magazines adorned with stories of the short and long and
middling size, from her fertile pen. "These are beautiful," says he,
in glancing over a few pages, "but no matter how you try, you can not
with your pen surpass your own beauty. The charm of your literary
style can not hold a candle to the charm of your--permit me to read
your hand." And laying down the magazine, he takes up her hand and
presses it to his lips. In like manner, he tries to read somewhat in
the face, but the Enchantress protests and smiles. In which case the
smile renders the protest null and void.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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