I left my new friends with reluctance, but after that visit began the correspondence which forms the subject matter of this book.
GRACE ELLISON.
A TURKISH WOMAN’S EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS
CHAPTER I
A DASH FOR FREEDOM
A few days after my visit to the Désenchantées at Fontainebleau, which is described in the Introduction, I received the following letter from Zeyneb:
Fontainebleau, Sept. 1906.
You will never know, my dear and latest friend, the pleasure your visit has given us. It was such a new experience, and all the more to be appreciated, because we were firmly convinced we had come to the end of new experiences.
For almost a quarter of a century, in our dear Turkey, we longed above all for something new; we would have welcomed death even as a change, but everything, everything was always the same.