The rich dress worn at home had been exchanged for one exceedingly plain and suited to her present sad and humble surroundings. But the change did not detract from her superb loveliness. On the contrary, the exquisite graces of feature and figure became all the more apparent in the absence of the distractions of extrinsic ornament; and a new light born of a heavenly pity and self-forgetfulness was shining in her face.
Without replying to her words, Seti advanced to a casement and door, and threw them widely open on a small open court.
“But the leech, grandfather, said that the fresh air must be excluded.”
“Did he bring this?” said the Egyptian, taking up from the bed a partly unrolled manuscript. He read aloud: “The Psalms of David translated by the Seventy.”
“That is mine,” said Rachel. “I brought it with me, and have read from it to Miriam while she could listen. It was her only comfort, besides prayer.”
“What have you learned about her case?”
“You know that she left us two years ago to marry a man whom we could not approve: and until yesterday we did not know what had become of her. Then I had a message from her husband, who is a Greek, that she was sick at this place. I went to her at once and found her very weak and low with this fever; and gathered from her with great difficulty that she had led a life of hardship and exposure since leaving us, had sometimes been in the extreme of want, but was ashamed to make her situation known to us after having rejected our counsel. So she had gradually been worn down by want and disappointment until this fever seized on her and found an easy victim”—and the fair head drooped with a sigh to the hot forehead that rested against her shoulder.
“Has she asked for nothing?” inquired Seti.
“Not of late. When I first came she wanted water, and asked for it almost constantly. But the leech said she must not have it. It would chill her and finally make the fever worse. He would only allow her lips to be moistened occasionally with a sponge.”
“Her lips are trying to move now. Can you hear anything?”