One day, she proved to him that she too was thinking about other things besides mealtimes and crocheting. “Isa,” she said, “you seem very distracted, and sometimes you look so miserable. It makes me very worried.”

Isa said that he was sorry that she was worried. “I’m quite well,” he continued, “so don’t worry yourself about that.”

“Some things can be harmful for a man.”

“Such as?”

“Not working when he can.”

He smiled even though he was really furious. “Maybe you’re annoyed,” he said, “to find your husband out of a job.”

“It doesn’t worry me at all,” she replied emphatically, “apart from the effect which it has on you.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“You know best about that, my dear.”

“There aren’t any ministerial posts vacant at the moment,” he replied simply.

They both laughed with no feeling at all. However, she carried on hopefully. “Think about it seriously,” she said. “Please.”

He told himself that she was right, and that she did occasionally have a sensible idea in that stupid head of hers. He himself was convinced that he needed to get a job, but why did his ambition let him down? Did his will have some kind of disease? Why didn’t he open an office, or else join one?

He was thinking about a job, but living without one and without any serious initiative about taking the required step. His bank balance gave him a certain amount of security, and this had been increased by his prosperous marriage. And apart from all that, his pension could cover his daily expenses. So he gave in to laziness and arrogance, and his eternal sense of alienation was too great to let him begin at the bottom of the ladder. He sought consolation in any way he could, at home or outside, in Ra’s al-Barr29 or Alexandria, without paying any attention to the passage of time.

“You’re getting heavier all the time,” Samir Abd al-Baqi told him. “You should look after yourself.”

It was true that he was eating too much, sweets especially, and no meal went by without his having a glass or two. “I’m quite aware of that,” he replied. “People will say that my wife is fattening me up well.”

“I was only thinking of your health,” replied Samir timidly.

“Yes, I daresay,” said Isa. “But sometimes I can read it in people’s eyes.”

“It’s entirely your own fault,” said Samir with a frown. “You’re so lazy. I often wonder in amazement where that Isa who used to leave the ministry after midnight almost every day has disappeared to, to say nothing of the one who put so much into the party and the club.”