“They’re shining only from joy, but I’m not much of a dancer. I’ve almost forgotten how.”

“Don’t you see you’re too tall to be a good dancer?”

“When my friend invited me to the New Paris he said I’d like what I’d find.”

“Really.”

Lying comes so easily in the autumn. Mustapha was clapping for them as they returned to their seats. Omar’s face glowed with a boyish happiness, and for a moment, bewitched by the night’s charms, he was restored to his lost youth. She touched the ring of his left hand, murmuring, “Married…really, you married men don’t give the bachelors a chance.”

Mustapha said, laughing, “You two are getting along famously. I bet you’ll go out together tonight.”

“You’ve lost the bet.”

“Why, my dear Margaret? A lawyer like our friend won’t tolerate delay.”

“Then he must learn.”

“Conventions be damned!”

Omar said gently, “In any case, my car’s at your disposal to take you wherever you’d like.”

When she got into the car with him, he was elated. “Where to?”

“Athens Hotel.”

“Have you seen the pyramids after midnight?”

“It’s a dark night without any moon.”

He headed in the direction of the pyramids. “Civilization has robbed us of the beauty of darkness.”

“But—”

He said reassuringly, “I’m a lawyer, not a playboy, or a highway bandit.”

His heart had not stirred like this since the rendezvous in the Jardin des Familles. He could hardly remember Zeinab’s youthful face and hadn’t really looked at their wedding picture for the past ten years. You, Margaret, are everything and nothing. With the desperation of a fugitive, I knock at the gate of the enchanted city.

“Under this open sky by the pyramids, great events took place.”

She lifted his arm from around her neck, saying, “Please don’t add to those events.”

He pressed her hand in gratitude nonetheless.

“It’s best that we don’t stop,” she said. “Don’t you see how strong the wind is?”

“We’re well protected inside.”

How dense the darkness is around us. If only its density could shut out the world, obliterating everything before the weary eye so that the heart alone might see, might gaze on the blazing star of ecstasy. It approaches now like the rays of dawn. Your soul seems to shun everything in its thirst for love, in its love for love, in its yearning for the first ecstasy of creation and for a refuge in the wellsprings of life.

“Why don’t we spend the night here?”

“Be sensible. Please take me back.”

“You’ve never heard of what goes on at night at the pyramids?”

“Tell me about it tomorrow.”

He leaned toward her and they exchanged a kiss; but then she restrained him, pleading, “I said tomorrow.”

He kissed her cheek lightly, signaling retreat, and started moving the car over the sand.