knee, hardly hearing the merchants calling their wares to her.
>From her skin tone and European clothing they presumed she must be a
tourist.
She hesitated so long over taking this irrevocable step that she was
almost an hour late for the appointment.
Fortunately this was Egypt, and Atalan was an Arab to whom time did not
have the same significance as it did to the Western part of Royan's
make-up.
He, was his usual urbane and charming self. Today, in the-privacy of his
own office, he was comfortably dressed in a white dishdasha and a
headcloth. He shook hands with her warmly. If this had been London he
might have kissed her cheek, but not here in the East where a man never
kissed any woman but his wife and then only in the privacy of their
home.
He led her through to his private sitting room, where his male secretary
served them small cups of tar-thick coffee and lingered to preserve the
propriety of this meeting. After an exchange of compliments and the
obligatory interval of polite small-talk, Royan could come obliquely to
the main reason for her visit.
'I have spent much of the last few days at the museum, working in the
reading room. I managed to see many of my old colleagues there, and I
was surprised to hear that Nahoot had withdrawn his application for the
post of director.'
Atalan sighed, 'My nephew is a headstrong boy at times. The job was his,
but at the very last moment he came to tell me that he had been offered
another in Germany. I tried to dissuade him. I told him that he would
not enjoy the northern climate after being brought up in the Nile
valley. I told him that there are many things in life such as country
and family that no amount of money can recompense. But-' Atalan spread
his hands in an eloquent gesture.
'So who have you chosen to fill the post of director?' she asked with an
innocence that did not deceive him.
'We have not yet made any permanent appointment.
Nobody automatically comes to mind, now that Nahoot has withdrawn.
Perhaps we will be forced to advertise internationally. I for one would
be very sad to see it go to a foreigner, no matter how well qualified.'
our excellency, may I speak to you in private?' Royan asked, and glanced
significantly at the male secretary hovering at the doorway. Atalan
hesitated only a moment.
'Of course.' He gestured to the secretary to leave the room, and when he
had withdrawn and closed the door behind him Atalan leaned towards her
and dropped his voice slightly. 'What is it that you wish to discuss, my
dear lady?'
It was an hour later that Royan left him. He walked with her as far as
the lift outside his suite of offices.
As he shook hands his voice was low and mellifluous 'We will meet again
soon, inshallah.'
hen the Egyptair flight landed at Heath, row and Royan left the airport
arrivals hall for a place in the queue at the taxi rank outside, it
seemed that the temperature difference from Cairo was at least fifteen
