“I need to find a companion and put an end to my loneliness,” Isa responded angrily. “This woman is quite respectable and she’s prepared to take me with all my faults. So why shouldn’t I accept her with hers? Where can I find a decent girl who’ll accept me in my present circumstances?”

He went to see Inayat Hanem to ask for Qadriyya’s hand, and found her quite prepared to accept his proposal. “I want to be honest with you,” he said. “Lies are the enemy of marriage. I have a fair amount of money left in the bank, in addition to my share of the money on the sale of the house. I also have a small pension. At the moment, I haven’t got a job, but it’s possible that I’ll find a decent job in the future. I was expelled from the government, not for reasons having to do with honor but because of blind political partisanship. It wasn’t possible for the present regime to spare someone like me whom it regards as being very dangerous!”

“That’s fine,” the old lady replied. “We’re not worried about money. We prefer work only because it’s undesirable to be doing nothing. I’ve no doubts about your honor whatsoever; my late husband suffered just as you have. My heart tells me that you’ll be the best husband for my daughter.”

She did not tell him about her daughter’s successive marriages or her sterility. That made him happy. He realized that, if he knew about the bride’s faults in advance, later on he wouldn’t be able to play the role of the faithful husband whose hopes have been dashed. And that was a very important role to leave open should he later have the chance to regain his influence and prestige!

TWENTY-TWO

He travelled to Ra’s al-Barr29 to spend his honeymoon in Inayat Hanem’s chalet. Relations among the three of them grew in a way which augured well for the future. From the beginning, he wanted to be a man in every sense of the word. He did not give way on anything which he felt he might regret later on. For that reason, he refused to stay in her mother’s house, even though she suggested it, and insisted on living with his wife far away in Dokki, that quarter with its unforgettable memories. He showed a strange courage in telling her quite frankly that they both—he and his wife, that is—had to enjoy her money while she was alive so that they could honestly wish her a long life! He was sticking to his demands till they were all met in full; the reason why the mighty party had been ruined, he told himself, was that it had been too tolerant toward the end of its life, a life which had otherwise been marked by an obstinate persistence.