suspicious, felt there must be some reason other than indigestion. She asked her mother about it, but did not receive a convincing answer.
When Kamal returned from the dining room, he also asked. He was not motivated by curiosity or regret but by the hope of good news of a prolonged period during which the field would be empty of a dangerous competitor for food like Yasin.
The matter might have been forgotten had Yasin not left the house in the evening without participating in the customary coffee hour. Although he apologized to Fahmy and their mother and claimed he was tied up with an appointment, Khadija said bluntly, 'There’s something going on. I'm no fool… I'll cut my arm off if Yasin hasn't changed'.
The mother was forced to announce that al-Sayyid Ahmad was angry at Yasin for some unknown reason, and the coffee hour was devoted to their conjectures about the cause. Amina and Fahmy guessed along with the others, in order to conceal the truth.
Yasin avoided eating with his father until he was summoned one morning to meet him before breakfast. The invitation did not come as a surprise and yet it alarmed him. He had expected it from day to day. He was certain his father would not feel there had been an adequate response to his offense. His father would return to the subject by one avenue or another. Yasin expected to be treated in a manner inappropriate for a gainfully employed person like himself. At times he thought of leaving the house temporarily or for good. For his father, especially the father he had learned about in Zubayda’s house, to make such a catastrophe out of his blunder was not nice. It was also not right for Yasin to expose himself to treatment incompatible with his manly status. The best thing would be for him to leave, but where to? He would have to live alone. That was not out of the question. He considered the matter from every angle, estimated his expenses, and asked himself how much would be left over for his entertainment in al-Sayyid Ali’s coffee shop, in Costaki’s bar, and with Zanuba. At this point his enthusiasm flagged. Then it was extinguished like the flame of a lamp when a strong gust of wind hits it.
Although he knew he was not-being totally honest, he told himself, 'If I obey Satan and leave home, I'll create a bad precedent that would be wrong for our family. No matter what my father says or does, he’s my father. It’s absurd to think his discipline would be unjust'. Then he continued with the candor he affected when in a playful mood: 'Have some humility, Yasin Bey. Spare us the talk about honor, by the life of your mother. Which do you love more: your honor or Costaki’s cognac and Zanuba’s navel?'
Thus Yasin abandoned the thought of leaving home and kept on waiting for the anticipated summons. When it arrived, he pulled himself together and set off, reluctantly and apprehensively. He entered the room, walking softly, his head bowed! He stopped at some distance from his father and did not dare offer him a word of greeting. Yasin waited while al-Sayyid Ahmad gave him a long look. Then the father shook his head in amazement and said, 'God’s will be done! So tall and broad… a mustache and a wide neck. If someone saw you on the street he'd comment admiringly, 'What a fine son for some lucky man.' If only he'd come to the house to see you in your true colors'.
The young man became even more distressed and embarrassed but said nothing. Al-Sayyid Ahmad continued to examine him angrily. Then in a stern and commanding voice he told him tersely, 'I've decided you're going to get married'.
Yasin was so astonished he could scarcely believe his ears. Curses and rebukes were all he had been expecting. It had never occurred to him that he would hear an important decision altering the whole course of his life. He could not keep himself from raising his eyes to look at his father’s face. When they met his father’s piercing blue ones, he looked down, blushed, and kept silent.
Al-Sayyid Ahmad realized that his son had been expecting rough treatment and was caught off guard by these blissful tidings. The father was enraged at the circumstances that dictated this mild-mannered approach, fearing it would shake Yasin’s faith in his reputation for tyranny. He vented his anger in his voice as he said with a frown, 'I don't have much time. I want to hear your answer'.
Since the man had decided Yasin was to marry, there was only one possible answer, and there was nothing to prevent him from hearing the answer he wanted. In this case, Yasin’s obedience to his father was also obedience to his own desire. Yes, no sooner had his father announced the decision than Yasin’s imagination shot off, depicting his beautiful bride. He would have a woman entirely to himself, to be at his beck and call. The image delighted him so much, his voice almost gave him away when he answered, 'The decision’s up to you, Papa'.
'Do you want to marry or not?… Speak'.
With the caution of a person wanting to get married but financially unprepared, the young man replied, 'Since this is your wish, I agree with all my heart'.
Al-Sayyid Ahmad softened the roughness of his voice when he said, 'I'll request for you the daughter of my friend Mr. Muhammad Iffat, a textile merchant in al-Hamzawi. She’s a treasure who’s too good for an ox like you'.
Yasin smiled delicately and, trying to ingratiate himself with his father, said, 'With your help I'll try to be a good husband for her'.
His father glared at him as if attempting to pierce through his flattery and said, 'No one hearing you would imagine what you're capable of doing, you hypocrite… Get out of my sight'.
Yasin started to leave, but his father stopped him with a gesture of his hand. Al-Sayyid Ahmad added, as though he had just happened to think of the question, 'I suppose you've saved up enough for the dowry?'
Yasin did not have an answer. He became more upset. His father was enraged and remarked incredulously, 'Even after you got a job you continued to live at my expense the way you did when you were a student. What have you done with your salary?'
All Yasin did was move his lips without uttering a word. His father shook his head in annoyance. He remembered speaking to him a year and a half before. When Yasin got his government position, al-Sayyid Ahmad had told him, 'If I were to ask you to take care of your own expenses like an adult, I would not be deviating from the norm between fathers and sons, but I will not ask you for a single penny, so you can have an opportunity to put aside a sum of money to have at your disposal when you need it'. In this way he had shown his confidence in his son.
He could not imagine that one of his sons, after the stern discipline and training he had meted out, would have an inclination for any of the passions that squander money. He could not imagine that his little boy would turn into a philandering drunkard. The wine and women al-Sayyid Ahmad considered a harmless form of recreation for himself, fully compatible with manly virtue, became an unforgivable crime when they defiled one of his sons. The young man’s blunder in the courtyard, which al-Sayyid Ahmad had discovered, reassured him to the same extent that it angered him. It would have been impossible, in his opinion, for Umm Hanafi to tempt the young man if he had not been struggling to maintain an intolerable level of chastity and rectitude.
He could not imagine that his son had wasted his money on wine and women, but he did remember noticing Yasin was fond of elegance, choosing expensive suits, neckties, and shirts. He had been uncomfortable about that and had warned him against throwing away his money. His warning had been mild, because he did not think elegance a crime and because it was an interest he shared with his son. He saw no harm in his sons imitating him in this manner. It made him feel kindly and well disposed toward them. What had been the result of that lenience? It was clear to him now that Yasin had squandered his money on unimportant luxuries. The man snorted with rage and told his son bitterly, 'Get out of my sight'.
Yasin departed from the room, leaving his father angry at him for squandering his money, not, as he had anticipated, for his moral lapse. Being a spendthrift had never troubled Yasin before. He had let it happen without any thought or planning. He would spend whatever he had in his pocket until it was gone. He was immersed in the present, turning a blind eye to the future, as though it did not exist. Yasin left the room upset, cowering from his father’s scolding, but he felt a deep relief since he realized that this scolding meant he would not be thrown out of the house and also that his father would bear the expenses of his wedding. He was like a child who, having pestered his father for a coin, gets it and is shoved outside. Then the happiness of the boy’s triumph makes him forget the strength of the push.
Al-Sayyid Ahmad was still angry and began to repeat, 'What an animal he is. He’s got a big, strong body, but no brain'. He was angry that Yasin had squandered his money, as though he himself never had. He saw nothing wrong with extravagance, any more than he did with his other passions, so long as it did not bankrupt him, make him forget his obligations, or harm his character. But what guarantee did he have that Yasin would be as resolute? Al-Sayyid Ahmad did not forbid his son what he allowed himself merely out of egoism and authoritarianism, but
