Westernization, as far as it has reached the Turk, has produced in him, both in his men and women, a melancholia and a sense that he is at a loss, neither belonging: o one thing nor the other. Especially in facing the adventure of marriage do the old customs of his country hamper him in his choice when he has seen the West.
For an example on the male side there is my typical Westernized acquaintance Ah Fuad Mehmed Bey, back here after a long spell of study and pleasure in London and Paris. He has been pestered day in and day out by his relatives to marry and enter the family tradition of the Osmanlis. Hardly a day passes but his lady-mother calls him and talks to him about it, And the way her pleading goes, he tells me, is something of this sort:
"But, my son, I assure you she is a very nice girl. Blonde, tall, large grey eyes, and a gentle expression, instructed in music, and with a very sweet and equable disposition, she is fit to make any man happy.
"Yes, my mother, but I should like at least to see her. All you say may be true enough and yet she may not be suitable for me." If I could have but one interview!"
So the amiable quarrel goes on perpetually, and my poor acquaiatance is never bold enough to overcome his new-fangled prejudices in favour of seeing the girl suggested to him and making up his own mind after a sight of her,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.