The awkwardness of the Syrian catastrophe
was, that it was so sudden and so unexpected that there was then no time
for those satisfactory explanations which afterwards took place between
Adam Besso and Riza.
Though the situation of Besso remained, therefore, unchanged after the
subsidence of the Syrian agitation, the same circumstance could not be
predicated of the position of his foster-child. Fakredeen possessed
all the qualities of the genuine Syrian character in excess; vain,
susceptible, endowed with a brilliant though frothy imagination, and a
love of action so unrestrained that restlessness deprived it of energy,
with so fine a taste that he was always capricious, and so ingenious
that he seemed ever inconsistent. His ambition was as high as his
apprehension was quick. He saw everything and understood everybody in
a flash; and believed that everything that was said or done ought to
be made to contribute to his fortunes. Educated in the sweet order, and
amid the decorous virtues of the roof of Besso, Fakredeen, who, from his
susceptibility, took the colour of his companions, even when he thought
they were his tools, had figured for ten years as a soft-hearted and
somewhat timid child, dependent on kind words, and returning kindness
with a passionate affection.
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