“Splendid! Why didn’t you carry on with your studies?” He regretted that question, remembering the first day of his service at the office of His Excellency the Director General.

The girl answered shyly, “Certain circumstances compelled me to stop.”

He cursed circumstances and sought relief in the fact that the two of them shared the same dreadful predicament.

“You reminded me of myself. But let me tell you this: I got my degree while working. Closed doors will open before those who try hard,” he said affably.

Her eyes clouded over with a wistful look and she said, “But we live in a harsh and unfair society.”

He found that the “revolutionary” ideas which he had no knowledge of and deliberately sought to ignore were threatening again to assault him. He said with determination, “It’s better to rely on oneself than to attack society. God addresses His commandments to us as individuals and brings us to account also as individuals. And to cleave a path through rocky ground is better than begging charity from society. It seems you’re interested in politics and what they call sociological thinking?”

“I believe in it.”

“This means you don’t believe in yourself. As for me, I only believe in my own willpower and the unknown wisdom of God!”

She smiled and did not utter a word. He smiled too and said, “I will give you the incoming mail to look after. It’s the best job for a new employee.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I will expect you to prove yourself always worthy of my confidence.”

“I hope I’ll never give you reason to be disappointed.”

“If you meet with any annoyance from your colleagues, do not hesitate to tell me!”

“I hope I won’t need to.”

He handed her over to one of the clerks to initiate her in her job.

“Incoming mail,” he said tersely.

He felt that Archives had made a gratifying leap toward the luminous life and that from now on it would not lack something to move the heart and excite the senses. The clouds of melancholy memories lifted a little, and instead his thoughts turned back to Sayyida, to Saniyya, to Asila the headmistress, and to Qadriyya, and he told himself that the world of women was endlessly variable and sweet and painful. He asked himself in puzzlement, “Which is the means and which the end: the woman or the position?”

And he also said to himself, “Many men live without position, but who lives without a woman?”