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Updated: June 10, 2025
"And there is something else, Tufik, something rather personal. But I want you to promise. You are only a boy; but when you are a man " Tish stopped and looked to me for help. "Miss Tish means this," I put in, "you are to have only one wife, Tufik. We are not sending you back to start a harem. We we disapprove strongly of er anything like that." "Tufik takes but one wife," he said.
The train was called, filled up, and left. People took to staring at us as we sat there. Aggie sneezed and Tish held her eye. And no Tufik! In a sort of helpless, breakfastless rage we called a taxicab and went to Tish's. No one said much. We were all thinking. We were hungry; so we spread out the shoebox lunch on one of the Cluny-lace covers and ate it, mostly in silence.
We each had two little glasses and Tish said she would not bother about the switch-key. The car was insured against theft. A little later Aggie said she used to do a little jig step when she was a girl, and if they would play slower she would like to see if she had forgotten it. Tish did not hear this she was talking to Tufik, and a moment later she got up and went out.
Tufik came round only once to tell us that, having to pay car fare to get to the automobile school, his nine dollars were not enough. We added a dollar a week under protest; and Tish suggested with some asperity that as he was only busy four hours a day he might find some light employment for the balance of the day. He spread out his hands and drew up his shoulders.
"She is a bad woman!" Tufik said somberly. "I make my little prayer to see Miss Tish, my mother, and she I kill her!" We had a hard time apologizing to him for Hanna. Tish got a basin of cold water so he might bathe his face; and Aggie brought a tablespoonful of blackberry cordial, which is soothing.
We had planned to go to Panama, and had our passage engaged; but when we broke the news to Tufik he turned quite pale. "You go away?" he said wistfully. "Only for a month," Tish hastened to apologize. "You see, we we are all very tired, and the Panama Canal " "Canal? I know not a canal." "It is for ships " "You go there in a ship?" "Yes. A canal is a " "You go far in a ship and I I stay here?"
"Our people we have but one wife. My first child it is called Tish; my next, Lizzie; and my next, Aggie Pilk. All for my so kind friends. And one I call Charlie Sands; and one shall be Hannah. So that Tufik never forget America."
There was no sound from the hallway. No smiling Tufik presented himself in the doorway. Tish rose in the majesty of wrath. "I could strangle that woman!" she said, and we followed her into the hall. Tufik was standing inside the door with his arms folded, staring ahead. He took no notice of us. "Tufik!" Aggie cried, running to him. "Did she did she dare Tish, look at his cheek!"
"His father is an honored citizen of Beirut, of the nobility. The family is impoverished, being Christian, and grossly imposed on by the Turks. Tufik speaks French and English as well as Mohammedan. They offered him a high government position if he would desert the Christian faith; but he refused firmly.
On the top step, huddled and shivering, with streams of water running off his hair down over his celluloid collar, pouring out of his sleeves and cascading down the stairs from his trousers legs, was Tufik. The policeman on the beat was prodding at him with his foot, trying to make him get up. When he saw us the officer touched his hat. "Evening, Miss Tish," he said, grinning.
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