Straight into the troubled eyes of his young visitor the older man looked and smiled. “It is well, my son. To win the unselfish affection of a child; to love a maid purely and protectingly and to keep thyself worthy of both will be to thy remorseful soul as waters of cleansing.” Then, sternly: “And to atone for the evil thou hast wrought to the House of Caleb, I charge thee to do this thing lest the wrath of Jehovah fall upon thee.”
Awed and assenting, Isaac stood through a few moments of silence on the part of his host. At last the latter turned to him. “As to thy master, Naaman, behold, before thy return to the palace, he will have received a message from the king to present himself to me. To-morrow at this hour thou shalt bring him hither and both he and thou shalt know the only true God.”
The speaker made a gesture by which his visitor understood that the interview was ended. With respectful ceremony Isaac made his adieux and started back to the Ivory Palace, back to his impatient master. As he went he reviewed the events of the past few weeks, the disquieting rumors which his familiarity with the language had enabled him to hear in the long walks he had taken through the city with a view to news-gathering, a pastime inspired by Jehoram’s delay and Naaman’s depression. It was this which had driven him to the prophet. He must know for himself if there were hope.
At the palace gate there awaited him a servant whom they had brought from Syria to say that his master desired his presence without delay. Isaac presented himself humbly, half expecting the wrath which he encountered.
“So thine own business and pleasure are more to thee than mine, Isaac.”
“Nay, my master, I—”
“The king’s messenger hath been here and thou away. None but Lemuel to speak his tongue and he haltingly and the message one of importance. Yet peradventure I should not have expected thy interest. Thinkest thou I have not marked thy many absences of late and this the longest of all?”
“But, my master, if thou hadst followed me—” The eager tone trailed off into silence. How could he relate the disheartening tidings he had heard on every hand when it could but add to his master’s impatience and perhaps frustrate the very purpose for which they had come? The pause was lengthy.
Naaman’s manner changed from sarcastic irritability to amused toleration. “I had forgotten, Isaac, how oft thou hast been in this land. I should have remembered thy youth and thy good looks and the charm of the maids of Israel.”
“Nay, nay, my master. I but went—”