'I suppose I must be something!' said Hazel, with that pretty half laugh which covered so many thoughts.
'Yes,' said he laughing and stooping to kiss her. 'Do you want me to tell you what?'
'Keeping strictly to fact and not fancy'
'Strictly fact.' And folding her close, and watching her face, sometimes touching it, he went on,'Something, of which it is said that "her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." She does not exactly "seek wool and flax"or if, it is Berlin wool, I believe; but it is certainly true that "she considereth a field, and buyeth it." And "she stretcheth out her hands to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple." I do not think she "makes fine linen;" nevertheless I hope it will be true that "she looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." And if all her household are not "clothed in scarlet," she is very fond of wearing it herself.'
Wych Hazel listened with eyes looking down, and lips that parted yet did not speak. But now they curled unmistakeably.
'Ha, ha!' she laughed. 'What a mixed piece of fact that is! past, present, and future, in one grand conglomerate. Do you suppose I shall ever again have a chance to dabble in land? And I thought you had ruled out the 'silk and purple'?'
'Did you? I suppose, in Old Testament language the silk and purple means that she was suitably dressed.'
'Scarlet ditto. But I do not know what 'spoil' can mean. If it said 'supervision,' I could understand that.'
'Spoil means, profits and honours.'
'That makes no sense of the rest of the verse.'