With profound apologies he asked me to excuse him for the remainder of the afternoon.
"You see," he explained, "I came from Damascus to Jerusalem, so I was rather out of touch with what was going on here.

This conference of notables was rather a surprise to me.

It will not really take place until tomorrow, but there are important details to attend to in advance.

If you could amuse yourself--" The man who could not do that in a crusader city, crammed with sons of Ishmael who looked as if they had stepped out of the pages of the Old Testament, would be difficult to please.

I asked for Ahmed, to act as interpreter.