At the same moment another mind was dealing with the same problem. Gehazi, elated at Naaman’s generosity, had been likewise perplexed. To receive a present was one thing, to dispose of it quite another, especially in view of the two servants who carried the treasure and before whom he must act the part of Elisha’s messenger as he had represented himself to be. At the tower in the vineyard at the foot of the hill he dismissed the men and took the burden himself, staggering under its weight. Within the house he hastily disposed of his new possessions and betook himself to his master, wondering if his absence had been noted and striving to assume an air of innocence by busying himself about necessary tasks.
Elisha’s keen eye rested upon the guilty countenance: “Whence comest thou, Gehazi?”
“Thy servant went no whither.”
The prophet’s righteous indignation was kindled at the falsehood. “Went not my heart with thee when the man turned back from his chariot to meet thee?”
The fear in the craven face opposite told its own story. The prophet’s wrath overflowed. To have upheld the honor of the Lord of Hosts and then this misrepresentation! “Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and olive-yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men servants and maid servants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed forever.”
Gehazi cowered, weeping and pleading, but the stern edict had gone forth. Already he knew himself to be the loathsome object Naaman had once been, and at the same hour when Isaac lay down to sleep with a smile upon his face, Gehazi rent his garments and cried aloud outside the gate through which Greed had driven him.
CHAPTER XVIII
PLANS
Naaman, freed from the bondage of physical suffering, made plans for the future with all the abandon of a joyous child. The first day of the return journey he talked much with Isaac, whom he graciously permitted to ride beside him, the target for both the flattery and the malice of his less-favored associates.
“There remaineth, Isaac, most of the treasure we brought to this land, despite our trifling gifts to King Jehoram and to the prophet’s servant for his master’s almsgiving. Had it not been for thee I should not now be healed. Behold, the gift is thine.”
Isaac bowed low. “Nay, my lord, for had it not been for the little maid we should not now be in Israel.”