In his eyes was frank admiration. “Wise are thy words and quickly will I do as thou sayest, but how thinkest thou I can plant without seed and reap with nothing wherewith to sow?”
Judith’s hand opened and trembling a little she held before his dazzled eyes the pearl she had just found: “A jewel, my lord, given unto me by my father and kept hidden until now. Do thou take it and go unto other cities and buy seed. So shalt thou and I and the village be saved from death and thy prosperity come again. Only, I pray thee, tell no one whence came the pearl.”
She paused, a world of entreaty in her manner. He assented, his hand clutching the jewel, but his eyes fastened upon her.
“Most discreet art thou of all the women of Israel and long hath my soul cleaved unto thee. I will do as thou sayest, and when I return it shall be, if thou thinkest well, that I shall ask for thee at the hands of thy kinswoman, Sarah, and thou shalt be my wife.”
Judith stooped without haste and picked up her bundle of brush. “Yea, my lord,” she murmured, preparing to leave him and dropping her eyelids to hide an exultant gleam, “thy servant shall be obedient unto thy wishes in the matter.”
Halfway up the hill she paused and looked back. He was diligently examining the pearl. Her lip curled slightly.
“Thy soul cleaveth unto me, thou sayest? Nay, for hereabouts they say thou hast none.” She laughed to herself. “When a faithless Israelite taketh unto himself a wife who is a ‘heathen’ they who know us will say that no worse fate could come to either. And when the two who are most despised form an alliance, each should know that there is no friend save in the other.”
The sun had risen fully when Judith returned to the house. Eli, groping unavailingly upon the ground, drew her aside for a whispered word. “No pearl can I find and she had not strength to throw it far. Thinkest thou she had the jewel but in a dream? Thinkest thou that sorrow hath affected her mind?”
The girl drew a breath of relief and letting fall the brush pretended to assist him in the search. “Yea,” she assented with apparent reluctance, “surely it is as thou sayest, and she but dreamed. As if she would cast away a valuable pearl! Nay, but thou hast spoken the truth,” and sighing heavily she passed into the house.