of diamonds. He succeeded in his suit, and brought home his bride Lebîbeh in triumph, to grace the largest establishment in Hâifa. The bridegroom was above sixty, and the bride about sixteen years of age. She had never had any intercourse with European or even semi-European society, but with natural grace she accustomed herself to her new life and her new home.
I frequently visited her. She was the most perfect type I had met with of the truly-Oriental Christian female aristocracy, quite untinged by European innovations. Moslem female aristocracy is of a very different and far inferior order. It is comparatively barbarous in luxury and splendor.
The face of the bride pleased me exceedingly. It was a pure oval, and of that creamy, golden complexion, which looked almost fair, relieved as it was by glossy-black braids, long, dark lashes, and violet eyes. Her mouth was small and well formed. It is very unusual to see a refined-looking mouth among the Arab women. Girls often have prettily-shaped lips, but they almost invariably change in form and character in womanhood.
The first time I called on Lebîbeh it was on a Christian fête day. She was dressed in modern Damascus style. Her trowsers were long and very full, made of bright rose-colored silk, with a narrow pattern wrought in gold down each side. Her jacket, which was short, made with tight sleeves, was of violet-silk velvet, richly embroidered, and quite open in front, exposing a lilac-crape shirt, which scarcely concealed her bosom. Round the neck and down the front of this shirt, a sentence, invoking a blessing on the wearer, was worked in Arabic characters, with fine gold thread, forming a rich ornamental border of about two inches wide. She wore a necklace of very large Oriental pearls, with a diamond cross hanging from it. Her black hair was parted on one side, and divided into fourteen long, straight,Grecian plaits. Each plait was neatly intertwined, and plaited with thick, black-silk braid to add to its weight
