“Is that the custom in Turkey?”
“Why, of course, when you are invited to lunch you can come to breakfast instead, or the meal after, or not at all. Whenever our guests arrive, it is we who are under obligations to them for coming.”
“What a comforting civilisation; I am sure I should love to be in Turkey.”
I wanted to ask indiscreet questions.
“Have you large trees in Turkey with hollows big enough to seat two persons?” I began.
Melek saw through the trick at once.
“Ah!” she answered, “now you are treading on dangerous ground; next time you come to see us we shall speak about these things. In the meanwhile learn that the charming side of life to which you have referred, and about which we have read so much in English novels, does not exist for us Turkish women. Nothing in our life can be compared to yours, and in a short time you will see this. We have no right to vary ever so little the programme arranged for us by the customs of our country; an adventure of any kind generally ends in disaster. As you may know, we women never see our husbands till we are married, and an unhappy marriage is none the less awful to bear when it is the work of some one else.”
“Do tell me more,” I persisted.
“The marriage of a Turkish woman is an intensely interesting subject to anyone but a Turkish woman....”
*****