Summary

Chapter 7 opens with Midhat running home, up the mountain and away from the house of Haj Nimr and Fatima. He was embarrassed, and when he ran into Jamil, he decided not to tell him about the incident. The pair crossed paths with the French priest from the Samaritan synagogue, and Midhat made small talk with the man in French. Upon returning home, Midhat told Teta of his failed proposal, and she was angry with him. To keep his mind off of it, he threw himself enthusiastically into his work at the shop, becoming far more engaged in the trade and beginning to fully understand credit and debt as they related to his father’s work. When the father of his old friend and childhood love interest Hala came into the shop, Midhat forgave the man’s debt. While examining Midhat’s bookkeeping records...