Events moved on until the King left the country. Isa saw it in Alexandria. He also saw for himself the Army movements and the clamorous demonstrations. Conflicting emotions kept preying on his mind, sweeping him around in a never-ending whirlpool. The exhilaration he frequently felt was difficult to confirm, to define, or even to contemplate: though it cured the pains of his own resentment, it did not last, always collapsing against some dark cloud of other emotions. His pleasure was spoiled to a certain degree. Was this the natural reaction to the release of bitter feelings? Or was it the sort of pity that anyone might feel, standing secure over the corpse of a tyrannical rival? Perhaps when we achieve a major goal in our lives, we also lose a reason for our enthusiasm for living. Or could it be that he found it hard to acknowledge a great victory without his party taking the main credit for it?

This was the state of mind Isa was in when Abd al-Halim Pasha’s visitors arrived at the latter’s mansion in Zizinia.50 Their feelings seemed very mixed; some of them were delighted, while others looked apprehensive and even worried.

“Glory to Him who never ceases,” the Pasha said.

“Faruq’s finished,” Shaikh Abd as-Sattar as-Salhubi said in his oratorical manner, “but we need to reassure ourselves.”

The ensuing wave of nervous chuckles was devoid of joy. Isa was sitting beside his friends, Samir Abd al-Baqi, Abbas Sadiq, and Ibrahim Khairat. “What about the future?” he asked.

“It will undoubtedly be better than the past!” Abd al-Halim Pasha replied, ignoring the point of the question.

“Maybe he’s asking about our own future,” Shaikh Abd as-Sattar as-Salhubi said to the Pasha.

“We’ll have a role to play,” the Pasha replied with an expressionless face, which suited an old politician. “There’s no question of that.”

Shaikh Abd as-Sattar trembled like a Qur’an reader steeling himself during interludes in recitation. “This movement isn’t in our interests,” he commented angrily. “I can smell danger thousands of miles away. On the day the treaty was annulled, we lost the King and the British, and now today we’re going to lose everything.”

“We’re the last people who should have to worry about any danger. Or at least that’s how it should be.”

“We would have done exactly the same as what has happened today,” Ibrahim Khairat said, “if only we’d had the strength.”

“Yes, but we didn’t, Sidi Umar!”37 Shaikh as-Sattar retorted sarcastically.