"Andrew On Prostitutes" 
by Gibran Khalil Gibran 

SHE WHO WAS DEAF

Once there lived a rich man who had a young wife, and she was stone deaf. 

And upon a morning when they were breaking their feast, she spoke to him and she
said, "Yesterday I visited the market place, and there were exibited silken raiment from
Damascus, and coverchiefs from India, necklaces from Persia, and bracelets from
Yamman. It seems that the caravans had but just brought these things to our city. And
now behold me, in rags, yet the wife of a rich man. I would have some of those beautiful
things." 

The husband, still busy with his morning coffee said, "My dear, there is no reason why
you should not go down to the Street and buy all that your heart may desire." And the
deaf wife said, "'No!' You always say, 'No, no.' Must I needs appear in tatters among our
friends to shame your wealth and my people?" And the husband said, "I did not say,
'No.' You may go forth freely to the market place and purchase the most beautiful
apparel and jewels that have come to our city." 

But again the wife mis-read his words, and she replied, "Of all rich men you are the
most miserly. You would deny me everything of beauty and loveliness, while other
women of my age walk the gardens of the city clothed in rich raiment." 

And she began to weep. And as her tears fell upon her breast she cried out again, "You
always say, 'Nay, nay' to me when I desire a garment or a jewel." Then the husband
was moved, and he stood up and took out of his purse a handful of gold and placed it
before her, saying in a kindly voice, "Go down to the market place, my dear, and buy all
that you will." 

From that day onward the deaf young wife, whenever she desired anything, would
appear before her husband with a pearly tear in her eye, and he in silence would take
out a handful of gold and place it in her lap. 

Now, it changed that the young woman fell in love with a youth whose habit it was to
make long journeys. And whenever he was away she would sit in her casement and
weep. 

When her husband found her thus weeping, he would say in his heart, "There must be
some new caraven, and some silken garments and rare jewels in the Street." And he
would take a handful of gold and place it before her.