They were sitting in the Soprano Casino overlooking the sea. It was noon, the time of day when he usually woke up. With his round eyes, Isa was following a group of swimming girls. He did not comment on his friend’s remark, but continued enjoying the view. Samir repeated what he had said.

“I’d really like to try an experiment,” Isa said, “one that has never been possible at the right time. I’d like to flirt with a pretty girl and get to know her, then propose to her. Meanwhile, we’d be exchanging presents, talking to each other, and making promises to each other over the telephone.”

“Do you really want to get married again?” Samir asked him.

He looked up at a slow-moving cloud which had a shape like a camel. “Just look at that cloud,” he said. “Tell me, is it possible that our life was created like that shape up there?”

“Even that fleeting shape is inevitable,” Samir replied with a smile. “It’s the result of hundreds of different factors of air and nature. But tell me, do you want to get married?”

Isa laughed and finished his Spatis.38 “Just a dream,” he said. “Why do Sufis always believe everything?”

“Well, then,” Samir said angrily, “let’s discuss your situation.”

“Just imagine,” Isa replied in a similar tone, “as I was coming from the hotel, I met Sami Pasha Abd ar-Rahman, the old Free Constitutionalist. I felt rather attached to him personally because we both belonged to the past generation. We shook hands with each other and stood there talking. Strangely enough, if it hadn’t been for Saad Zaghlul, we wouldn’t have got into this situation!”

Samir laughed so loudly that lots of people sitting around stared at them.

“The biggest trick I let them pull on me was the dowry balance,” Isa said in a different tone of voice. “The old woman’s a farsighted old devil!”

“Qadriyya Hanem is a very reasonable woman, Isa,” Samir said sorrowfully. “You’re mad to be doing all this gambling.”

Isa breathed in angrily. “It’s boredom,” he muttered.

“Work and work again,” said Samir, patting his hand. “That’s my first and last piece of advice to you.”

Samir came in at the very beginning of the evening session, when Isa was concentrating on the game, and invited him to accompany him on some urgent and important business. Isa tried to ignore the invitation and continue playing, but Samir dragged him from the table in spite of his cries of protest and the silent protests of the people around him as well.