Pages 61-69 Summary

"But I would hope you will not entertain the idea, dear sirs, that Mustafa Sa'eed had become an obsession that was ever with me in my comings and goings. Sometimes months would pass without his crossing my mind. In any case, he had died, by drowning or by suicide - God alone knows" (Chapter 4, pg. 61). The living cannot dwell on each person that dies and try to figure out why.

He spends two months of the year in the village where he grew up. He talks of the steamer that travels on the Nile River and all of the activity that accompanies its arrival. The steamer comes once a week. There are always people there to meet the boat. His father and other family members are there to greet him when he arrives. He learns the latest news on the way...