e need to offset past prejudices before
suggesting his enormous ability along advanced lines.

"You come at an interesting time," he said. "You find us in
transition. Before the War, and almost until the end of it, most
Arabs believed in the German destiny. English gold commanded the
allegiance of an Arab army, but every last man in that army was
ready to follow the German standard at the proper time. That
only shows how ignorant these people are. As soon as it became
evident that the Arab destiny lies in the hands of Arabs
themselves most of them immediately began to clamour for an
American mandate, because that would give them temporary masters
who could protect them, yet at the same time who would be too
ignorant of real conditions to prevent secret preparations for a
pan-Arabian revolt. All very absurd, of course."

He had no idea how absurd he himself appeared. He launched into
a tirade designed to make him seem a super-statesman in the eyes
of a stranger who did not care what he was. The more he talked
himself into a delirium of self-esteem the less his character
impressed me. I even ran into the danger of under-estimating him
because he liked himself so much.

"I'm here to look into the prospects for a school," I said.

"Yes, yes. Very estimable. You shall have my support." He
paused for me to fawn on him, and my neglect to do it spurred him
to further self-revelation.

"You must look to me for support if you hope for success. There
is no cohesion here without me. I am the only man in El-Kerak to
whom they all listen, and even I have difficulty in uniting them
at times. But a school is a good idea, and under my auspices you
will succeed."

For the moment I thought he suspected me of wanting to teach
school myself. I hastened to correct the impression:

"All I promise to do is to tell people in the States who might be
interested."

"Exactly." He had been coming at this point all along in his own
way. "So there is no hurry. It makes no difference that you
must stay in El-Kerak a little longer than you intended. You
shall be presented to the council of notables under my auspices.
In my judgment it is important that you remain here for some
little time."

I suppose the men who can analyze their thoughts, and separate
the wise impulses from the rash ones, are the people whom the
world calls men of destiny and whom history later assigns to its
halls of fame. The rest of us simply act