ink of."

The next morning two things happened. We gave Tufik one hundred and
twenty dollars to buy a ticket back to Syria and to keep him in funds on
the way. And Tish got a note from Hannah:--

_Dear Miss Tish_: I here you still have the dago--or, as my sister's
husband says, he still has you. I am redy to live up to my bargen if
you are.

HANNAH.

P.S. I have lerned a new salud--very rich, but delissious.

H.

In spite of herself, Tish looked haunted. It was the salad, no doubt.
She said nothing, but she looked round the untidy rooms, where
everything that would hold it had a linen cover with a Cluny-lace
edge--all of them soiled and wrinkled. She watched Tufik, chanting about
the plains of Lebanon and shoving the carpet-sweeper with a bang against
her best furniture; and, with Hannah's salad in mind, she sniffed a
warning odor from the kitchen that told of more Syrian experiments with
her digestion. Tish surrendered: that morning she wrote to Hannah that
Tufik was going back to Syria, and to come and bring the salad recipe
with her.

That was, I think, on a Monday. Tufik's steamer sailed on Thursday. On
Tuesday Aggie and I went shopping; and in a spirit of repentance--for we
felt we were not solving Tufik's question but getting rid of him--we
bought him a complete new outfit. He almost disgraced us by kissing
our hands in the store, and while we were buying him some ties he
disappeared--to come back later with the rims of his eyes red from
weeping. His gentle soul was touched with gratitude. Aggie had to tell
him firmly that if he kissed any more hands he would get his ears boxed.

The clerks in the store were all interested, and two or three cash-boys
followed us round and stood, open-mouthed, staring at us. Neither Aggie
nor I knew anything about masculine attire, and Tufik's idea was a suit,
with nothing underneath, a shirt-front and collar of celluloid, and a
green necktie already tied and hooking on to his collar-button. He was
dazed when we bought him a steamer trunk and a rug, and disappeared
again, returning in a few moments with a small paper bag full of
gumdrops. We were quite touched.

That, as I say, was on Tuesday. Tufik had been sleeping in Tish's
guest-room since his desperate attempt at suicide, and we sent his
things to Tish's apartment. That evening Tufik asked permission to spend
the night with a friend in the restaurant business--a Damascan. Tish let
him go against my ad