tone, 'I have a message to relay, before you all become too addled.'
When he had the attention of some of the company, he continued in a clear voice: 'Samara Bahgat wishes to visit the houseboat!'
Now the interest was universal. All eyes were fixed upon him, including those of Anis, though he continued to minister to the water pipe.
'The journalist?'
'The same. My beautiful and renowned colleague.'
A silence fell while this news was digested. Unreadable glances were exchanged. 'But why does she want to visit us?' Ahmad inquired finally.
'I am the one who has made her interested in you. We've had many long conversations about the houseboat.'
'You've got a loose tongue,' Ragab remarked. 'But does your friend _like_ houseboats?'
'It's not so much whether she does or not — more that she knows, or has heard, about more than one person here. Myself, being a colleague and friend, and Khalid Azzuz because of his stories, and you from your films — '
'Does she have any idea of what goes on here?'
'I think so. She is not completely unfamiliar with our world, because of her work, and her general experience of life.'
'If we are to judge her on the strength of what she writes, then she is an alarmingly serious person,' Ragab said.
'Well, she is serious. But everyone has a taste for the more mundane side of life.'
'And has she made other excursions like this?' Ahmad asked, with some irritation.
'I should imagine so. She's a friendly person, she likes people.'
'But she'll constrain us,' Ahmad pursued.
'No, no, no. Don't have any worries about that.'
'So will she — participate?'
'To a certain extent — in our more blameless activities, that is.'
'Blameless! So we _are_ going to be investigated, then!'
Ali stressed that she was coming for no other purpose than to get to know them.
Concern yourself no more with the matter, or else all the water pipe's good will come to nothing. Remember how the Persians received the first news of the Arab conquest… Anis smiled. He spotted a number of dead midges on the brass tray, which prompted him to ask: 'What class of animal do midges belong to?'
The question held up the flow of their ideas in an annoying and intrusive way. 'Mammals,' Mustafa Rashid replied sarcastically.
'The messenger's only duty is to deliver the message,' Ali went on. 'If you don't like the idea…'
Ragab interrupted him. 'We have not heard the opinion of the ladies.'
Layla raised no objection. Neither did Saniya. As for Sana, she suggested that Anis and Ahmad and Mustafa should be allowed to decide, 'since they are the ones who need girlfriends!'
'No — no,' protested Ali, 'what an unthinkable idea — don't embarrass me, please!'
'But in that case,' wondered Sana, pushing back a stray lock of hair from her brow, 'why do you want her to come?'
'I have nothing to add!'
'If the midge is a mammal' — Anis pursued his train of thought — 'how can we maintain that your friend is not in the same class?'
Ali addressed everyone, ignoring Anis' interruption. 'Your freedom is guaranteed in every way. You can say or do what you like — smoke, tell your ribald jokes; there will be no investigations, no probes, no reporter's trickery of any kind. You can rest assured. But it would not do for you to treat her as a frivolous woman.'
'_Frivolous_ woman?'
'What I mean is that she is an excellent person, just like any of you, who should not be treated as if she were… loose.'
'Really,' said Ahmad, 'I don't understand anything.'
'That is to be expected of you, O Nineteenth Century personified. Everyone else understands me without any difficulty at all.'
'Perhaps,' said Khalid, 'in spite of those articles of hers, she's actually an unreformed bourgeoise.'
'She is not bourgeois in any sense of the word.'
'Why don't you tell us something about her,' Mustafa suggested. 'That would be more useful.'
'Certainly. She's twenty-five. She graduated in English just before she turned twenty. She's an excellent journalist, better by far than most people her age. And she has ambitions in the artistic sphere which she hopes to realize one day. She looks at life from a serious angle, but she is very pleasant company. Everybody knows that she refused to marry a very well-to-do bourgeois man, in spite of her small salary.'
'Why?'
'The man was under forty, the director of a firm, the owner of an apartment block — like Khalid here — and a relation on her father's side to boot. But, as I understand it, she did not love him…'
'If we can judge by her heart, then,' said Khalid, 'she's a radical.'
'Call her progressive, if you like. But genuine and sincere as well.'
'Has she ever been arrested?'
'No. I have known her as a colleague ever since she got her first job on _Kulli Shay'_ magazine.'
'Perhaps when she was a student, then?'
'I think not, or else I would have found out about it during our long talks together. In any case, it wouldn't influence my opinion of her one way or the other.'
Sana spoke. 'Why do you want to invite such a dangerous woman to the houseboat,' she asked, 'when she can't entertain us in the least?'
'She must come,' said Layla. 'We need some new blood here.'
'Make a decision,' said Ali. 'She's at the club now. If you like, I can call her on the telephone and ask her to come over.'
'Did you tell her that it is the whale who gathers us all here?' Anis asked him.
Ali did not reply. He suggested taking a vote. Anis laughed at his own embalmed memories. He suggested that they bring Amm Abduh to add his vote as well. Ragab put his arm around Sana, and Ali rose to go to the telephone.
6
Half an hour after his telephone call, Ali al-Sayyid left his seat in order to be ready to welcome the newcomer at the door. Not long afterward, they felt the faint vibration of footsteps on the gangway. Ahmad wished aloud that they had hidden the water pipe so that they could feel easy in the presence of the visitor, but Ragab signaled contemptuously to Anis. 'Pile it on,' he said.
She appeared smiling from behind the screen, and came forward — followed by Ali — to meet their combined gazes in a calm, friendly, and unembarrassed way. All the men rose to their feet. Even Anis stood up, his white robe rumpled up over his shins. Ali began the conventional introductions. Ahmad offered to bring her a chair, but she preferred to sit on a mattress; and Ragab — involuntarily — moved closer to Sana in order to make room for her. Anis resumed his work, stealing occasional glances at her. He had been led, by what he had heard, to expect someone rather odd, and she was definitely a woman of character; but she was also quite charmingly feminine. From under drooping lids he saw that her dark complexion was undisguised by makeup. Her features were as open as her simple elegance, but in her gaze there was an intelligence that prevented him from fathoming her. He imagined that he had seen her before, but in what bygone age? Had she been queen or subject? Another furtive glance — but this time she showed him a new picture! He tried to absorb it all, but the concentration tired him out and he turned away to the Nile instead.
