Naguib Mahfouz - Palace Walk

He asked her excitedly, "Didn't you tell me you showed only Khadija to the ladies?"

"Yes, sir".

"Did they visit you again?"

"Certainly not, sir. Otherwise I would have told you".

He scolded her as though she were responsible for this peculiar behavior: "He sent his relatives. They saw Khadija. Then he asks for Aisha!.. What’s the meaning of this?"

The mother swallowed and cleared her throat, which was dry from the give-and-take of their conversation. She murmured, "In a case like this, the matchmakers don't go to the house in question until they have visited many of the neighboring households to make inquiries about matters of concern to them. In fact, they did hint in their conversation with me that they had heard you had two daughters. Perhaps presenting only one instead of both…"

She had meant to say, "Perhaps presenting only one instead of both served to confirm for them the rumor they had heard about the beauty of the younger girl". She stopped herself partly from fear of increasing his anger and partly from apprehension at openly stating this fact that was linked in her mind to gloomy anxieties and worries. She caught herself and concluded her statement with a mere gesture of her hand, as if to say, "And so on and so forth".

Al-Sayyid Ahmad glared at her until she lowered her eyes submissively. He became resentful and sad, compressing the anger within his heart. He began to pound his chest, trying to get some relief or company for his sorrow. Then he shouted in a stormy voice, "Now we know everything. Here’s a suitor asking for your daughter’s hand. So let me hear your opinion".

She felt that his question was dragging her into a bottomless pit. Holding her hands out subserviently, she replied without any hesitation, "My opinion is the same as yours, sir. I have no opinion of my own".

He roared back, "If that was so, you wouldn't have mentioned the matter to me at all".

She said apprehensively and devotedly, "Sir, I mentioned it to you only to keep you informed about the new development, since it’s my duty to let you know everything that affects your home, coming from near or far".

He shook his head peevishly and said, "Who knows… yes, by God, who knows? You're just a woman, and no woman has a fully developed mind. And the topic of marriage in particular is enough to make you women lose your senses. So perhaps you…"

She interrupted him in a trembling voice: "Sir, I seek refuge with God from what you suspect. Khadija is my daughter and my flesh and blood just as much as yours… What’s happening to her is breaking my heart. Aisha’s still in the first bloom of youth. It won't hurt her to wait till God brings help for her sister".

Her husband was nervously smoothing his thick mustache with the palm of his hand. Then he stopped suddenly as though he had remembered something. He asked, "Does Khadija know?"

"Yes, sir".

He waved his hand angrily and shouted, "How can this officer ask for the hand of Aisha despite the fact that no one has seen her?"

Although her heart was throbbing, she replied heatedly, "I told you, sir, perhaps they heard something about her".

"But he works in the Gamaliya police station-in other words, in our area. It’s as though he lived here".

His wife replied very emotionally, "No man has ever seen either of my daughters since they stopped going to school when they were little girls.

He struck his hands together and shouted at her, "Not so fast… Slow down. Do you think I have any doubts about that, woman? If I did, not even murder would satisfy me. I'm just talking about what will go through the minds of some people who don't know us. 'No man has ever seen either of my daughters…' God’s will be done. Would you have wanted a man to see them? What a crazy prattler you are. I'm repeating what might be rumored by fools. Yes… he’s an officer in the area. He walks along our streets morning and evening. So it’s not out of the question that people, if they learned he was marrying one of the girls, would suspect that he might have seen one of them. I would despise giving my daughter to someone if that meant stirring up doubts about my honor. No daughter of mine will marry a man until I am satisfied that his primary motive for marrying her is a sincere desire to be related to me… me… me… me. 'No man has ever seen either of my daughters…' Congratulations, Mrs. Amina, congratulations".

The mother listened with her head bowed, not uttering a word. The room was still. Then the man rose, signaling that he was going to put on his street clothes and return to his shop. She quickly got up. Her husband took his arms out of the sleeves of his house shirt and raised it to take it off but stopped before the neck of the shirt had gone past his chin. With the garment folded around his shoulders like the mane of a lion, he asked, "Didn't Mr. Fahmy understand the seriousness of the request his friend was making?" Nodding his head sadly, he continued: "People envy me my three sons. The truth is that all I've got are daughters… five daughters".

Once al-Sayyid Ahmad left the house, they soon learned what he thought about Aisha’s engagement. Although his opinion was accepted without opposition by people obliged to agree with him, it reverberated inside each of them in different ways. Fahmy was sorry to hear the news. He was unhappy Aisha was going to lose a fine husband like his friend Hasan Ibrahim. Before his father’s decision, Fahmy had wavered between enthusiasm for the prospective bridegroom and sympathy for Khadija’s delicate position. When the matter was settled, the part of him pitying Khadija found relief, while the other part wishing for Aisha’s happiness was sad. This sorrow gave him the courage to state his opinion openly: "Without any doubt, Khadija’s future is of concern to all of us, but I don't agree with the insistence on forbidding Aisha to take advantage of her opportunities. A person’s fortune is part of the invisible world known only to God. Perhaps God has stored up an even better fortune for the person forced to wait".

Khadija was possibly the one who felt most uncomfortable, since this was the second time she had stood in the way of her sister’s getting married. She brooded about her anguish, not while her future was on the line, but after her father’s categorical decision, when the danger threatening her had retreated. Then her anger and pain faded away, to be replaced by a distressing feeling of embarrassment and anguish. Fahmy’s words did not please her, because deep inside she wanted everyone to support her father’s decision and leave her the only one opposing it. All the same, she commented, "Fahmy was right in what he said. That’s what I've thought all along".

Yasin reaffirmed his idea: "Marriage is the destiny of every living creature… Have no fear… Don't panic".

He contented himself with this general observation, even though he was very fond of Aisha and indignant over the injustice that had befallen her. He was afraid that if he stated his opinion frankly, Khadija might misunderstand and suspect some link between this and the innocent squabbles that frequently broke out between them. His sensitivity about being a half brother also prevented him from volunteering an opinion that might offend a family member whenever they confronted a serious matter of delicate family business.

Aisha had not uttered a word but finally forced herself to speak, so her silence would not betray her pain, which she was determined to conceal. She would pretend to have no feelings about the engagement, no matter how much that distressed her, and announce her relief about the outcome, to conform with the atmosphere of the household that did not allow human emotions their rightful place and where the affections of the heart were hidden behind veils of self-denial and hypocrisy. So she said, "It wouldn't be right for me to marry before Khadija. The best thing by far is what my father has decided". She continued with a smile: "Why should you all be in such a hurry to get married? How do you know that we'll enjoy as happy a life in our spouse’s home as we do here in our father’s house?"