Miriam assured them that he would come and that without delay, and went on to add numberless details which bore the manifest stamp of truth, even to the mention of the sandals she was wearing, which were so very like a pair Ezekiel had once sent Rachel.
Long after farewells had been said and the visitors had departed, Rachel caressed the grass-woven bracelet strung from a chain around her neck, oblivious to comments, unheeding the low-toned conference between Rebekah and her friend.
“The minute I saw her with him,” Rebekah was saying, “never did I doubt either of them nor the tale they told.”
“Never,” agreed her friend, “and she with looks and ways so like Ezekiel, as we have often said.”
“Well do I remember,” continued Rebekah, “the gifts he sent to Israel and with what praise he spoke of this young kinswoman! The child, Miriam, recalleth it to my mind. A lovable little maid! Ah me, how fast they grow! To think I should not have known Isaac, a man now and an officer, when as a lad his sister hath oft brought him to the shop!”
“If only the maiden were betrothed to the soldier!” sighed the friend, “but to a wandering shepherd!”
“Yea,” Rebekah answered, sorrowfully, “and a sad day will it be for Amos and me when we shall have to lose our sweet little Rachel!”
That visit changed Miriam’s whole attitude toward her new life. Although her longing for her parents and the old familiar faces and places remained almost overpowering at times, yet in Rachel’s presence and Benjamin’s nearness she discovered comforting home ties. The certainty that her brother would soon be in Damascus and that she was free to visit her friend, did much to bring contentment. A captive she might be, but not a prisoner. The color began to come back to the pale cheeks; she grew more cheerful and energetic, more diligent in seeking ways of usefulness, and that is how it happened that she had an adventure while Isaac was gone. She walked straight through the Closed Door and stepped—not on but still further into—Milcah’s heart.
It was Memory that opened the door and Kindness which escorted her over the threshold, and it all came about through her new timbrel. She was singing in the courtyard and inadvertently paused near the Closed Door.