The old Druse chief shook his head, smiled in his beard, a little, bitter, wise smile. "You were never sick with her, never poor." "No, never sick, never poor." "Well, he was sick and poor, so she went with him." "Then she loved him all along." "No, son Zan, she loved you--until you threw him. She might have been amused at seeing him pass the house, laugh a little, be flattered.... Such a big fool, and she a little woman.... But she would never have left you...." "But she did." "Well ... after the fall, he had no friends ... the Christians despised him, the Moslems hated him.... There was no train to follow him ... he went on crutches.... He passed her door and looked, and looked.... What could she do but come out.... It was her fault, after all.... And she was very tender-hearted...." "Tender-hearted?" "Didn't you know?" "No, I never knew." "She used to cry when the leaves fell from the trees.... You didn't know your wife well?" "No, sir, I did not." "Well, she is gone, Zan.... Where, one doesn't know.... What will become of her, one doesn't know. Destiny is like a blind camel. He doesn't know against what he stumbles. We do not see him come.... Only when the harm is done, do we say: We might have listened for the tinkle of his bell.... Eh, one is young and does everything and sees nothing. One is old and sees everything and does nothing. There is no mystery ... only ignorance...." "You say she was very tender-hearted, my uncle. I didn't know.... I thought of her as something else...." "Son Zan, you had better forget her in another woman. Listen son, I will give you Aziyed in marriage, my own daughter. She is just as pretty and younger and not so foolish as Fenzile." "Oh, no, sir. No!" "Well, I don't blame you." "It isn't that, Arif Bey. It isn't that. I'm very beholden to you ... for your kindness ... and your patience.... I didn't know.... And I thought I knew everything nearly, and am so ignorant.... Why until now I didn't know even this--the sun shone so brightly, and life was so pleasant, I thought that was the way of life.... But I was in love with Fenzile.... And that was what made everything so wonderful ... in love with the wife you gave me ... head over heels, sir ... just simply--head over heels...." PART FIVE THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK PIG Section 1 To him, for a long time now, the sea had been only water. All the immense pelagic plain, dotted with ships; with bergs of ice, like cathedrals; with waves that curled or swept in huge rhythms; with currents defined in lines and whorls; with gulls that mewed and whales that blew like pretty fountains; with the little Portuguese men-of-war; with the cleaving of flying fish and the tumbling of dolphins, all this was water. All this joyous green, this laughing white, the deep reflective blue, the somber exquisite gray, was water. An infinity of barrels of water, immense vats of water, water, wet water....