第5章

THE BIRTH OF NAOMI

Israel paid no heed to Jew or Moor, but in due time he set about the building of a house for himself and for Ruth, that they might live in comfort many years together.In the south-east corner of the Mellah he placed it, and he built it partly in the Moorish and partly in the English fashion, with an open court and corridors, marble pillars, and a marble staircase, walls of small tiles, and ceilings of stalactites, but also with windows and with doors.And when his house was raised he put no haities into it, and spread no mattresses on the floors, but sent for tables and chairs and couches out of England;and everything he did in this wise cut him off the more from the people about him, both Moors and Jews.

And being settled at last, and his own master in his own dwelling, out of the power of his enemies to push him back into the streets, suddenly it occurred to him for the first time that whereas the house he had built was a refuge for himself, it was doomed to be little better than a prison for his wife.In marrying Ruth he had enlarged the circle of his intimates by one faithful and loving soul, but in marrying him she had reduced even her friends to that number.

Her father was dead; if she was the daughter of a Chief Rabbi she was also the wife of an outcast, the companion of a pariah, and save for him, she must be for ever alone.Even their bondwomen still spoke a foreign dialect, and commerce with them was mainly by signs.

Thinking of all this with some remorse, one idea fixed itself on Israel's mind, one hope on his heart--that Ruth might soon bear a child.Then would her solitude be broken by the dearest company that a woman might know on earth.And, if he had wronged her, his child would make amends.

Israel thought of this again and again.The delicious hope pursued him.

It was his secret, and he never gave it speech.But time passed, and no child was born.And Ruth herself saw that she was barren, and she began to cast down her head before her husband.

Israel's hope was of longer life, but the truth dawned upon him at last.

Then, when he perceived that his wife was ashamed, a great tenderness came over him.He had been thinking of her; that a child would bring her solace, and meanwhile she had thought only of him, that a child would be his pride.After that he never went abroad but he came home with stories of women wailing at the cemetery over the tombs of their babes, of men broken in heart for loss of their sons, and of how they were best treated of God who were given no children.

This served his big soul for a time to cheat it of its disappointment, half deceiving Ruth, and deceiving himself entirely.But one day the woman Rebecca met him again at the street-corner by his own house, and she lifted her gaunt finger into his face, and cried, "Israel ben Oliel, the judgment of the Lord is upon you, and will not suffer you to raise up children to be a reproach and a curse among your people!""Out upon you, woman!" cried Israel, and almost in the first delirium of his pain he had lifted his hand to strike her.Her other predictions had passed him by, but this one had smitten him.He went home and shut himself in his room, and throughout that day he let no one come near to him.

Israel knew his own heart at last.At his wife's barrenness he was now angry with the anger of a proud man whose pride had been abased.

What was the worth of it, after all, that he had conquered the fate that had first beaten him down? What did it come to that the world was at his feet? Heaven was above him, and the poorest man in the Mellah who was the father of a child might look down on him with contempt.

That night sleep forsook his eyelids, and his mouth was parched and his spirit bitter.And sometimes he reproached himself with a thousand offences, and sometimes he searched the Scriptures, that he might persuade himself that he had walked blameless before the Lord in the ordinances and commandments of God.

Meantime, Ruth, in her solitude, remembered that it was now three years since she had been married to Israel, and that by the laws, both of their race and their country, a woman who had been long barren might straightway be divorced by her husband.

Next morning a message of business came from the Khaleefa, but Israel would not answer it.Then came an order to him from the Governor, but still he paid no heed.At length he heard a feeble knock at the door of his room.It was Ruth, his wife, and he opened to her and she entered.

"Send me away from you!" she cried."Send me away!""Not for the place of the Kaid," he answered stoutly; "no, nor the throne of the Sultan!"At that she fell on his neck and kissed him, and they mingled their tears together.But he comforted her at length, and said, "Look up, my dearest! look up! I am a proud man among men, but it is even as the Lord may deal with me.And which of us shall murmur against God?"At that word Ruth lifted her head from his bosom and her eyes were full of a sudden thought.

"Then let us ask of the Lord," she whispered hotly, "and surely He will hear our prayer.""It is the voice of the Lord Himself!" cried Israel; "and this day it shall be done!"At the time of evening prayers Israel and Ruth went up hand in hand together to the synagogue, in a narrow lane off the Sok el Foki.

And Ruth knelt in her place in the gallery close under the iron grating and the candles that hung above it, and she prayed: "O Lord, have pity on this Thy servant, and take away her reproach among women.

Give her grace in Thine eyes, O Lord, that her husband be not ashamed.

Grant her a child of Thy mercy, that his eye may smile upon her.

Yet not as she willeth, but as Thou willest, O Lord, and Thy servant will be satisfied."But Israel stood long on the floor with his hand on his heart and his eyes to the ground, and he called on God as a debtor that will not be appeased, saying: How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?

My enemies triumph over me and foretell Thy doom upon me.

They sit in the lurking-places of the streets to deride me.