第7章

Let us eat and drink together." So, partly by his importunity, but mainly in their bewilderment, yet against all rule and custom, they suffered themselves to go with him.

And when they were come into his house and were seated about his table in the patio, and he had washed his hands and taken the wine and blessed it, and passed it to all, and they had drunk together, he could not keep back his tongue from taunting them.Then when he had washed again and dipped the celery in the vinegar, and they had drunk of the wine once more, he taunted them afresh and laughed.

But nothing yet had they understood of his meaning, and they looked into each other's faces and asked, "What is it?""Wait! Only wait!" Israel answered."You shall see!"At that moment Ruth sent for him to her chamber, and he went in to her.

"I am a sorrowful woman," she said."Some evil is about to befall--I know it, I feel it."

But he only rallied her and laughed again, and prophesied joy on the morrow.Then, returning to the patio, where the passover cakes had been broken, he called for the supper, and bade his guests to eat and drink as much as their hearts desired.

They could do neither now, for the fear that possessed them at sight of Israel's frenzy.The three old usurers, Abraham, Judah, and Reuben, rose to go, but Israel cried, "Stay! Stay, and see what is come!"and under the very force of his will they yielded and sat down again.

Still Israel drank and laughed and derided them.In the wild torrent of his madness he called them by names they knew and by names they did not know-- Harpagon, Shylock, Bildad, Elihu--and at every new name he laughed again.And while he carried himself so in the outer court the slave woman Fatimah came from the inner room with word that the child was born.

At that Israel was like a man distraught.He leapt up from the table and faced full upon his guests, and cried, "Now you know what it is; and now you know why you are bidden to this supper! You are here to rejoice with me over my enemies! Drink! drink! Confusion to all of them!"And he lifted a winecup and drank himself.

They were abashed before him, and tried to edge out of the patio into the street; but he put his back to the passage, and faced them again.

"You will not drink?" he said."Then listen to me." He dashed the winecup out of his hand, and it broke into fragments on the floor.

His laughter was gone, his face was aflame, and his voice rose to a shrill cry."You foretold the doom of God upon me, you brought me low, you made me ashamed: but behold how the Lord has lifted me up! You set your women to prophesy that God would not suffer me to raise up children to be a reproach and a curse among my people; but God has this day given me a son like the best of you.More than that--more than that-- my son shall yet see--"The slave woman was touching his arm."It is a girl," she said; "a girl!"For a moment Israel stammered and paused.Then he cried, "No matter!

She shall see your own children fatherless, and with none to show them mercy! She shall see the iniquity of their fathers remembered against them! She shall see them beg their bread, and seek it in desolate places! And now you can go! Go! go!"He had stepped aside as he spoke, and with a sweep of his arm he was driving them all out like sheep before him, dumbfounded and with their eyes in the dust, when suddenly there was a low cry from the inner room.

It was Ruth calling for her husband.Israel wheeled about and went in to her hurriedly, and his enemies, by one impulse of evil instinct, followed him and listened from the threshold.

Ruth's face was a face of fear, and her lips moved, but no voice came from them.

And Israel said, "How is it with you, my dearest joy of my joy and pride of my pride?"Then Ruth lifted the babe from her bosom and said "The Lord has counted my prayer to me as sin--look, see; the child is both dumb and blind!"At that word Israel's heart died within him, but he muttered out of his dry throat, "No, no, never believe it!""True, true, it is true," she moaned; "the child has not uttered a cry, and its eyelids have not blinked at the light.""Never believe it, I say!" Israel growled, and he lifted the babe in his arms to try it.

But when he held it to the fading light of the window which opened upon the street where the woman called the prophetess had cursed him, the eyes of the child did not close, neither did their pupils diminish.

Then his limbs began to tremble, so that the midwife took the babe out of his arms and laid it again on its mother's bosom.

And Ruth wept over it, saying, "Even if it were a son never could it serve in the synagogue! Never! Never!"At that Israel began to curse and to swear.His enemies had now pushed themselves into the chamber, and they cried, "Peace! Peace!"And old Judah ben Lolo, the elder of the synagogue, grunted, and said, "Is it not written that no one afflicted of God shall minister in His temples?"Israel stared around in silence into the faces about him, first into the face of his wife, and then into the faces of his enemies whom he had bidden.Then he fell to laughing hideously and crying, "What matter? Every monkey is a gazelle to its mother!"But after that he staggered, his knees gave way, he pitched half forward and half aside, like a falling horse, and with a deep groan he fell with his face to the floor.

The midwife and the slave lifted him up and moistened his lips with water;but his enemies turned and left him, muttering among themselves, "The Lord killeth and maketh alive, He bringeth low and lifteth up, and into the pit that the evil man diggeth or another He causeth his foot to slip."