Days went by and he began to get worried. Then the agent brought him the good news that the lady had accepted the quoted price. From the agent’s chatter he gathered that Inayat Hanem was the widow of a police officer, but her money had been left to her by her father. Her daughter, Qadriyya, her only child, had been divorced five years earlier without ever having any children. Isa went to visit the lady at home in a building she owned in Sakakini Square.30 The superb, classically styled furniture showed that the family had real prestige, and all the formalities of the sale were settled at a friendly session. Isa pointed to the picture of the lady’s husband. “I knew your late husband,” he said suavely. “When I first started working, I heard enough things about him to convince me that he was a respectable man and loved his homeland.”

This had a very good effect on the two women. Inayat Hanem invited him to stay for a while, and before long the servant brought in some tea and splendid cakes. The old woman expressed her happiness at being able to serve as hostess to one of her late husband’s admirers. However, Isa did not sense that his welcome was due to any generosity on her part, and guessed that the invitation was rather more for her daughter’s benefit. Qadriyya was sitting quietly and filled up the empty chair very nicely; from time to time, she looked at him drowsily.

“Those days serving in the provinces were really unforgettable,” Inayat Hanem said, “days full of goodness. My late husband earned Saad Zaghlul’s esteem, and he was transferred to the Interior in 1924. But he was subjected to the worst kinds of treatment during the periods of revolution.” She went on to praise his intuition. “When Qadriyya’s husband came to ask for her hand,” she told Isa to prove her point, “my late husband said he was not happy with him. But I insisted, and so I was responsible for my daughter’s bad luck!”

Isa happily took his cue. “How was that, might I ask?”

“He was from a good family, but had a really depraved character. My daughter is a good girl; she looks after the house, and is of a generous disposition. By her very nature, she wasn’t prepared when he turned her home into a tavern and gaming den!”

“What bad luck!” Isa said regretfully. “Our Lord will recompense her well for her patience.”

A considerable amount of time passed in this heavily loaded conversation. Isa asked himself how much he could enjoy a woman like Qadriyya; he could regard her as a kind of lifetime security, and she could undoubtedly be considered a stroke of good fortune when measured against the misfortunes he had suffered.