Madame Filipov was a French woman married to a Bulgarian. Anyone who saw her from afar, with her graceful posture, her blond hair, blue eyes, nose up in the air, always dressed attractively, would have recognized her right away as French.

Once again, she went out secretly. Her seamstress had sent her a dress, oh, so simple—made of a white foulard with narrow cream-colored tips at the waist—she put it on right away. But the seamstress wanted the money right away. And Monsieur Filipov had only given her 80 francs for her summer wardrobe. 80 francs! Only her husband, whose mother has gotten by with a dirty black headscarf and dress made from the same fabric her whole life, could disgrace her in this way. The batiste shirt alone, which she wore underneath her dress, cost 80 francs. Oh, what a delightful shirt, shimmering through and soft as silk, from Bursa and adorned with genuine Valenciennes around the neckline. Did he really expect her to dress herself for these 80 francs? But she still could not walk down the street in her shirt, so she had ordered the dress. A trifle, 250 francs. Isn’t that cheap for a foulard dress?

So she thought as she walked through the streets in the new dress, far too elegant for Sofian standards and Sofian dust. What she wanted was very clear to her: go to the nearest banker with her check book and have 250 francs paid out in gold. She went into a small exchange bureau, which happened to be on her way. Luckily, the owner happened to be alone. Not for the life of her did she want anybody to know about her embarrassment, least of all her husband. But the exchange officer didn’t want to bite; did he shy away from the trouble of redeeming it or didn’t he have the 250 francs, a paltry amount, in stock? In short, he found an excuse. Why didn’t she go to Master Ibrahim, who had a large exchange bureau on the first floor in his own building? She also kept her money there, and he issued the check book.

“I don’t like going there, you know, there are always so many people there and then it is not the custom here for women to do their own business.”