She shrugged her shoulders in protest, while seeking not to embarrass him. She thought it better to be patient with him and to persevere.

He found that he suffered from a fearful repression that could eventually place him at the mercy of the unknown. Thus he yielded to the temptation of a colleague who invited him to visit the official prostitutes’ quarter. As one of the breed of al-Husayni Alley, he did not lack the necessary courage. He walked ahead into a lane lit by two gas lamps standing wide apart and covered in so thick a layer of dust that the lane was sunk in that semi-darkness which arouses desire; and he looked excitedly from place to place until his eyes settled on a prey. Those visits were usually followed by a wholehearted plea for forgiveness and a prolonged resort to prayer and worship, the sort of thing he habitually did each time he faced up to his deeply hidden intentions toward Sayyida. Thus in addition to the hardship of continuous work, he suffered even harsher hardship from the pangs of conscience. His long exhausting nights would terminate in severe mental fatigue, almost to the point of fainting. And sometimes tears would come to his eyes almost without his realizing it.

Sa‘fan Basyuni, the Head of Archives, watched his work with both admiration and misgiving. He appreciated his perseverance, discretion, and good manners. But from the start he was uneasy about his Secondary Education Diploma, which set him apart in the Archives Section, and also about his ambition for further education that would raise Othman even higher above his own solitary Certificate of Primary Education. Othman became aware of this quite quickly but he counted on the man’s good nature and redoubled his efforts to ingratiate himself with him and comply with his every direction until Sa‘fan fully trusted him and opened his heart to him with rare candor. Thus in his spare time he would draw closer to Othman and speak his mind openly. Even in politics he disclosed his views and inclinations to him. So zealous was the man that Othman shrank from ignoring his interests or declaring his own cold neutrality toward them.

“The truth is,” he would say with wary ambiguity, “we are of the same turn of mind…”