A couple of days later Dagon sailed down with his goblet to Sarah's house. He was arrayed in robes interwoven with gold; in his thick beard were glass globulets from which issued perfumes, and he had fastened two plumes to his head.
"Beautiful Sarah," began he, "may Jehovah pour on thy family as many blessings as there are waters in the Nile at present! We Phoenicians and ye Jews are brethren and neighbors. I am inflamed with such ardor of love for thee that didst Thou not belong to our most worthy lord I would give Gideon ten talents for thee, and would take thee for my lawful wife. So enamored am I."
"May God preserve me," answered Sarah, "from wanting another lord beyond the one who is mine at this moment. But whence, worthy Dagon, did the desire come to thee today of visiting our lord's servant?"
"I will tell thee the truth, as if Thou wert Tamara, my wife, who, a real daughter of Sidon, though she brought me a large dowry, is old now and not worthy to take off thy sandals."
"In the honey flowing from thy lips there is much wormwood," put in
Sarah.
"Let the honey," replied Dagon, sitting down, "be for thee and let the wormwood poison my heart. Our lord Prince Ramses may he live through eternity! has the mouth of a lion and the keenness of a vulture. He has seen fit to rent his estate to me. This has filled my stomach with delight; but he does not trust me, so I lay awake whole nights from anxiety, I only sigh and cover my bed with tears, in which bed would that Thou wert resting with me, O Sarah, instead of my wife Tamara, who cannot rouse desire in me any longer."
"That is not what Thou wishest to say," interrupted the blushing Sarah.
"I know not what I wish to say, since I have looked on thee, and since our lord, examining my activity on his estates, struck with a cane and took health from my scribe who was collecting dues there from tenants. And these dues were not for me. Sarah, but for our lord. It is not I who will eat the figs and wheaten bread from those lands, but Thou and our lord. I have given money to our lord and jewels to thee. Why then should the low Egyptian rabble impoverish our lord and thee, Sarah? To show how greatly Thou rousest my desire and that from these estates I wish nothing but reserve all for thee and our lord, I give this goblet of pure gold set with jewels and covered with carving at which the gods themselves would be astonished."
Then Dagon drew forth from the cloth the goblet refused by Prince
Ramses.
"I do not even wish that Thou shouldst have the goblet in the house and give the prince to drink from it. Give this goblet of pure gold to Gideon, whom I love as my own brother. And thou, Sarah, tell thy father these words: 'Thy twin brother Dagon, the unfortunate tenant on the lands of Prince Ramses, is ruined. Drink then, my father, from this goblet, think of thy twin brother, and beg Jehovah that our lord, Prince Ramses, may not beat his scribes, and bring to revolt tenants who even now have no wish to pay tribute? And know this, Sarah, that if Thou wouldst admit me to confidence I would give thee two talents, and thy father one talent, and, besides, I should be ashamed of giving thee so little, for Thou deservest that the pharaoh himself should fondle thee, and the heir of the throne, and the worthy minister Herhor, and the most valiant Nitager, and the richest bankers of the Phoenicians. There is such a taste in thee that I grow faint when I gaze at thee, and when I see thee not, I close my eyes and lick my lips. Thou art sweeter than figs, more fragrant than roses. I would give thee five talents. Take this goblet, Sarah."