comfort her. My darling, my darling."

Most of all when such things befell would Israel long for some miracle
out of heaven to find a way to the little maiden's mind that she might

ask and answer and know, yet he dared not to pray for it,
for still greater than his pity for the child was his fear of the wrath

of God. And out of this fear there came to him at length an awful
and terrible thought: though so severed on earth, his child and he,

yet before the bar of judgment they would one day be brought together,
and then how should it stand with her soul?

Naomi knew nothing of God, having no way of speech with man.
Would God condemn her for that, and cast her out for ever? No, no, no!

God would not ask her for good works in the land of silence,
and for labour in the land of night. She had no eyes to see

God's beautiful world, and no ears to hear His holy word.
God had created her so, and He would not destroy what He had made.

Far rather would He look with love and pity on His little one,
so long and sorely tried on earth, and send her at last to be

a blessed saint in heaven.
Israel tried to comfort himself so, but the effort was vain.

He was a Jew to the inmost fibre of his being, and he answered himself
out of his own mouth that it was his own sinful wish, and not God's will,

that had sent Naomi into the world as she was. Then, on the day
of the great account, how should he answer to her for her soul?

Visions stood up before him of endless retribution for the soul
that knew not God. These were the most awful terrors

of his sleepless nights, but at length peace came to him,
for he saw his path of duty. It was his duty to Naomi

that he should tell her of God and reveal the word of the Lord to her!
What matter if she could not hear? Though she had senses as the sands

of the seashore, yet in the way of light the Lord alone could lead her.
What matter though she could not see? The soul was the eye that saw God,

and with bodily eyes had no man seen Him.
So every day thereafter at sunset Israel took Naomi by the hand and

led her to an upper room, the same wherein her mother died, and,
fetching from a cupboard of the wall the Book of the Law, he read to her

of the commandments of the Lord by Moses, and of the Prophets,
and of the Kings. And while he read Naomi sat in silence at his feet,

with his one free hand in both of her hands, clasped close
against her cheek.

What the little maid in her darkness thought of this custom,
what mystery it was to her and wherefore, only the eye that looks

into darkness could see; but it was so at length that as soon as the sun
had set--for she knew when the sun was gone--Naomi herself would take

her father by the hand, and lead him to the upper room,
and fetch the book to his knees.

And sometimes, as Israel read, an evil spirit would seem to come to him,
and make a mock at him, and say, "The child is deaf and hears not--go

read your book in the tombs!" But he only hardened his neck and
laughed proudly. And, again, sometimes the evil spirit seemed to say,

"Why waste yourself in this misspent desire? The child is buried
while she is still alive, and who shall roll away the stone?"

But Israel only answered, "It is for the Lord to do miracles,
and the Lord is mighty."

So, great in his faith, Israel read to Naomi night after night,
and when his spirit was sore of many taunts in the day his voice

would be hoarse, and he would read the law which says,
"_Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block

before the blind._" But when his heart was at peace his voice
would be soft, and he would read of the child Samuel sanctified

to the Lord in the temple, and how the Lord called him and he answered--
"_And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place,

and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; and ere the lamp
of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was,

and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel,
and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said,

Here am I, for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not;
lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called

yet again, Samuel. And Samuel rose and went to Eli and said,
Here am I for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son;

lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord,
neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him._"

And, having finished his reading, Israel would close the book,
and sing out of the Psalms of David the psalm which says,

"It is good for me that I have been in trouble, that I may learn
Thy statutes."

Thus, night after night, when the sun was gone down, did Israel read
of the law and sing of the Psalms to Naomi, his daughter,

who was both blind and deaf. And though Naomi heard not,
and neither did she see, yet in their silent hour together there was

another in their chamber always with them--there was a third,
for there was God.

CHAPTER VII
THE ANGEL IN ISRAEL'S HOUSE

When Israel had been some twenty years at Tetuan, Naomi being then
fourteen years of age, Ben Aboo, the Basha, married a Christian wife.

The woman's name was Katrina. She was a Spaniard by birth,
and had first come to Morocco at the tail of a Spanish embassy,

which travelled through Tetuan from Ceuta to the Sultan at Fez.
What her belongings were, and what her antecedents had been,

no one appeared to know, nor did Ben Aboo himself seem to care.
She answered all his present needs in her own person, which was ample

in its proportions and abundant in its charms.
In marrying Ben Aboo, the wily Katrina imposed two conditions.

The first was, that he should put away the full Mohammedan complement
of four Moorish wives, whom he had married already as well as

the many concubines that he had annexed in his way through life,
and now kept lodged in one unquiet nest in the women's hidden quarter

of the Palace. The second condition was, that she herself should never
be banished to such seclusion, but, like the wife of any

European governor, should openly share the state of her husband.
Ben Aboo was in no mood to stand on the rights of a strict Mohammedan,

and he accepted both of her conditions. The first he never meant
to abide by, but the second she took care he should observe, and,

as a prelude to that public life which she intended to live by his side,
she insisted on a public marriage.

They were married according to the rites of the Catholic Church
by a Franciscan friar settled at Tangier, and the marriage festival

lasted six days. Great was the display, and lavish the outlay.
Every morning the cannon of the fort fired a round of shot from the hill,

every evening the tribesmen from the mountains went through their feats
of powder-play in the market-place, and every night a body of Aissawa

from Mequinez yelled and shrieked in the enclosure called the M'salla,
near the Bab er-Remoosh. Feasts were spread in the Kasbah,

and relays of guests from among the chief men of the town were
invited daily to partake of them.

No man dared to refuse his invitation, or to neglect the tribute
of a present, though the Moors well knew that they were lending the light

of their countenance to a brazenoutrage on their faith, and though
it galled the hearts of the Jews to make merry at the marriage

of a Christian and a Muslim--no man except Israel, and he excused himself
with what grace he could, being in no mood for rejoicing, but sick

with sorrow of the heart.
The Spanish woman was not to be gainsaid. She had taken her measure

of the man, and had resolved that a servant so powerful as Israel
should pay her court and tribute before all. Therefore she caused him

to be invited again; but Israel had taken his measure of the woman,
and with some lack of courtesy he excused himself afresh.

Katrina was not yet done. She was a creature of resource, and
having heard of Naomi with strange stories concerning her,