By NEIL MacFARQUHAR, BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 19 – On an unseasonably mild day last August, a small group of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s closest political allies could tell from his flushed face and subdued manner that something awful had happened in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where he had been summoned to a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. The four men, all Lebanese Parliament members, recalled waiting for him at the Beirut mansion of the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, in the so-called garden, basically a carport paved with concrete bricks, plus one short orange tree in a faux terra cotta tub. Mr. Hariri – wearing an expensive blue suit and a white shirt, his tie loosened – lumbered over mutely and flung himself onto one of a dozen white plastic chairs, his head lolling back and his arms dangling over the edges.