Good Evening, Ester (Evening, Day 5)

Lady Luck has finally decided to smile upon me – tomorrow we are going to see Cezmi Kenan! Reşit and I spoke over dinner. I hadn't been planning on dinner with him. I had been getting ready to go to the Taksim Gardens, where, according to Ihsan, a new orchestra is scheduled to perform.

‘You'll like it, Şehsuvar Bey. They have a German tenor singing songs from Faust and La Traviata.’

Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I do like a bit of opera, an art form to which I was introduced in your house. I know you've never really taken a liking to it but your Uncle Leon loved it, so much so that he once went all the way to Venice to watch a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto. I remember him once jokingly saying, ‘It's is the only thing I have in common with Abdülhamit. We both love opera.’ Actually, my adventures with opera did not begin in Uncle Leon's law office but with a gramophone and a recording of Faust that were amongst the items we seized from the Italians during the war in North Africa. They may have objected at first but even the soldiers I was sharing a tent with soon got used to this most European of art forms and when I arrived at the Pera Palace Hotel, Reşit, upon hearing about my fondness for music, had a gramophone placed in my room.

So yes, just as I was about to leave for the Taksim Gardens to eat while listening to songs about Faust's deal with the devil, Reşit caught up with me in the lobby.

‘I'm afraid I cannot let you go, Şehsuvar Bey’, he said sternly. ‘This evening, you shall be my guest’.

I protested, telling him I had already been his guest that morning but he would not listen and quickly gestured for Ihsan to set our table. And yes, I know you're curious as to what we ate – we started with düğün çorbası, followed by paçanga böreği, beef fillets in a thick tomato sauce, roasted jellied pheasant and a chestnut dessert. And of course, to top things off, sweet Turkish coffee. While dining on this sumptuous feast, we discussed our forthcoming rendezvous.