She was distressed at his reception of her tidings. She wept at the sternness of his tone, but her decision remained unchanged.
“Thinkest thou I have not thought of all these things, Isaac? Have I not been to the court with my mistress and beheld its glory and its folly? It would be wickedness to me. To be daughter in this household would not mean to give more time or greater service to my mistress, but less of both, for would not my duties be increased? More than this, as daughter here I must bow to Rimmon, but as handmaiden I can serve Jehovah. Thinkest thou the Lord, who looketh upon the heart, would be unmindful of my deceit? Nor, as I have told thee, would I thus ungratefully treat my friend. Thinkest thou I could be happy were I to take precedence of thee?”
Isaac was sternly resolved. “Miriam, thou must take heed to what I say. Quickly, before it is too late, thou must go to thy mistress and say—” but Miriam had gone.
In her place stood Milcah, shocked and reproving, as is the right of elder sisters. “I was passing through the courtyard shrubbery and heard. That she should tell a man what she told thee! And at her age!”
Isaac’s serenity unexpectedly returned. “That it should be ‘at her age,’” mocking Milcah’s tone, “is the only sad part of it to me. Would she were two or three years older! Would she had whispered it, hesitatingly and with a blush! Then would it have pleased me better, but as it is, she knoweth not what she hath said, and when she findeth out she will not mean it.”
Milcah’s sharp glance encountered one of the maid servants lingering within a doorway, smiling upon Isaac. The sight infuriated her, and by contrast, Miriam’s friendly admissions appeared the embodiment of frank childishness. She sighed.
“Useless is it to enlighten her or to chide thee, for Miriam is just Miriam, and neither thou nor I would have her different,” and so saying, Milcah went her way.
CHAPTER XX
DEVOTION
The gatekeeper at the House of Naaman was extremely wise. Old and faithful and trusted, he was an autocrat whose word few had the temerity to question. For years he had admitted and dismissed through that gate high and low, rich and poor, distinguished and obscure, speaking to each in his own tongue and with the manner his rank and errand demanded. For this reason he felt entirely competent to judge for himself of the worth of any applicant for admission, without referring the matter to higher authority. When, therefore, two young men of poverty-stricken appearance and speaking the language of Israel came, demanding to see the master of the house, it required but a moment to decide that their request should, by all means, be refused.
They were undoubtedly grieved and disappointed. The next day they came again, also the next and still the fourth, but neither arguments nor persuasion availed with the gatekeeper. Then they changed their tactics. They pursued a policy of watchful waiting, coming every day and crouching on the roadway outside the forbidden walls from the earliest beam of sunrise until its last faint glow in the evening. Against such warfare as this the autocrat of the gate was incensed, but not despondent. Others had made like attempts at various times, but had never been victorious.