The Map of Love (79 page)

Sharif Basha, who has turned back to the photographs, stiffens. ‘And where did you hear that?’ he asks lightly, picking up the sheets, rearranging them into a neat pile.

‘Talk travels,’ Isma
il Sabri says, his eyes steady on his old friend’s back. ‘Is it true?’

Sharif Basha turns. ‘Do you blame me?’ he asks — and it is a real question.

Isma’il Sabri shakes his head. ‘I would have urged it, but I thought you would not listen. I thought you would say, “He is grown ill and fearful” —’

‘You would have urged it?’ Sharif Basha is surprised. ‘Why?’

Isma’il Sabri makes a small ducking gesture with his head. ‘You have stood too much alone. Particularly in the last few years. I have felt —’

The door swings open and Ya
qub Artin Basha hurries in followed by an apologetic sufragi who has not had time to announce him. ‘Look!’ Ya
qub Basha waves his newspaper. ‘Unrest in the Balkans, and Turkey needs money to quell it —’

‘Ya
qub Basha!’ Isma
il Sabri holds out his hand. ‘You will excuse me —’

‘No, no. Your excuse is with you, my brother.’ Ya
qub Artin grasps the seated Isma
il Sabri’s hand and pumps it, then advances on Sharif Basha. The sufragi leaves the room quietly, closing the door behind him.

‘You have been looking at our ancestors, I see,’ Ya
qub Basha says, eyeing the pile of photographs at Sharif Basha’s side. Our friend the poet here has been urging me to get the history of the pharaohs taught in our schools. What do you think?’

‘A good idea,’ Sharif Basha says.

‘We do not know very much about them, though,’ Ya
qub Artin says.

‘Enough for schoolchildren,’ Isma
il Sabri offers.

‘It would be interesting to find out more,’ Sharif Basha says.

‘Ah! The magic of the past!’ Ya
qub Artin sits down heavily in an armchair opposite Isma
il Sabri. ‘So much more attractive than this present.’ He throws his newspaper down on the large, marble-topped coffee table that stands between him and his host. ‘There will be more massacres by the Turks and more money borrowed from Europe to fund them.’