It is the love of riper years, that makes the lips of lovers silent.
But Kenkenes and Rachel were very young and wholly demonstrative, and
they had need of many words to supplement the testimony of caresses.
They had much to tell and they left no avowal unmade.
But at last Kenkenes' voice wearied and Rachel noted it. So in her pretty authoritative way, she stroked his lashes down and bade him sleep. When she removed her hands and clasped them above his head, his eyes did not open.
As she bent over him, she noted with a great sweep of tenderness how young he was. In all her relations with Kenkenes she had seen him in the manliest roles. She had depended upon him, looked up to him, and had felt secure in his protection. Now she contemplated a face from which content had erased the mature lines that care had drawn. The curve of his lips, the length of the drooping lashes, the roundness of cheek, and the softness of throat, were youthful—boyish. With this enlightenment her love for him experienced a transfiguration. She seemed to grow older than he; the maternal element leaped to the fore; their positions were instantly reversed. It was hers to care for him!
After a long time, his arms relaxed about her, and she undid them and disposed them in easy position. Lifting the fillet from his brow, she smoothed out the mark it had made and settled the cushions more softly under his head. From the heap of coverings she took the amplest and the softest and spread it over him. Remembering that the wind from the sea blew shrewdly at night, she laid rugs about the edges of the tent which fluttered in the breeze and returned again to his side.
After another space of rapt contemplation of his unconscious face she went forth and drew the entrance together behind her.
The next daybreak was the happiest Israel had known in a hundred years.
Egypt, overthrown and humbled, was behind them; God was with them, and
Canaan was just ahead—perhaps only beyond the horizon. Few but would
have laughed at the glory of Babylonia, Assyria and the great powers.
For had it not been promised that out of Israel nations should be made, and kings should come?
The march was to be taken up immediately, and in the cool of the morning the host was ready to advance.
Rachel had not permitted herself to be seen until the tent of Miriam was struck. She knew that Kenkenes was without, waiting for her, and with the delightful inconsistency of maidenhood, she dreaded while she longed to meet her beloved again. And when the moment arrived she slipped across the open space to the camel that was to bear her into Canaan, but in the shadow of the faithful creature, Kenkenes overtook her and folded her in his arms.
"A blessing on thee, my sweet! And I am blest in having thee once more."