第41章

At last Naomi's terror was redoubled.Every sound seemed to smite her body as a blow.Hitherto she had known one sense only, the sense of touch, and though now she knew the sense of hearing also, she continued to refer all sensations to feeling.At the sound of the sea she put out her arms before her; at the sound of the wind she buried her face in her palms; and at the sound of the thunder she lifted her hands as if to protect her head.

Meanwhile, Israel sat beside her and cherished her close at his bosom.

He yearned to speak words of comfort to her, soft words of cheer, tender words of love, gentle words of hope.

"Be not afraid, my daughter! It is only the wind, it is only the rain;it is only the thunder.Once you loved to run and race in them.

They shall not harm you, for God is good, and He will keep you safe.

There, there, my little heart! See, your father is with you.

He will guard you.Fear not, my child, fear not!"Such were the words which Israel yearned to speak in Naomi's ears, but, alas! what words could she understand any more than the wind which moaned about the house and the thunder which rolled overhead?

And again and again, alas! as surely as he spoke to her she must shrink from the solace of his voice even as she shrank from the tumult of the voices of the storm.

Israel fell back helpless and heartbroken.He began to see in its fulness the change which had befallen Naomi, yet not at once to realise it, so sudden and so numbing was the stroke.He began to know that with the mighty blessing for which he had hoped and prayed--the blessing of a pathway to his daughter's soul--a misfortune had come as well.

What was it to him now that Naomi had ears to hear if she could not understand? And what was this tempest to the maiden new-born out of the land of silence into the world of sound, yet still both blind and dumb, but a circle of darkness alive with creatures that groaned and cried and shrieked and moved around her?

Thus nothing could Israel do but watch the creeping of Naomi's terror, and smooth her forehead and chafe her hands.And this he did, until at length, in a fresh outbreak of the storm, when the vault of the heavens seemed rent asunder, a strong delirium took hold of her, and she fell into a long unconsciousness.Then Israel held back his heart no longer, but wept above her, and called to her, and cried aloud upon her name--"Naomi! Naomi! My poor child! My dearest! Hear me! It is nothing!

nothing! Listen! It is gone! Gone!"

With such passionate cries of love and sorrow; Israel gave vent to his soul in its trouble.And while Naomi lay in her unconsciousness, he knew not what feelings possessed him, for his heart was in a great turmoil.Desolate! desolate! All was desolate!

His high-built hopes were in ashes!

Sometimes he remembered the days when the child knew no sorrow, and when grief came not near her, when she was brighter than the sun which she could not see and sweeter than the songs which she could not hear, when she was joyous as a bird in its narrow cage and fretted not at the bars which bound her, when she laughed as she braided her hair and came dancing out of her chamber at dawn.

And remembering this, he looked down at her knitted face, and his heart grew bitter, and he lifted up his voice through the tumult of the storm, and cried again on the God of Jacob, and rebuked Him for the marvellous work which He had wrought.

If God were an almighty God, surely He looked before and after, and foresaw what must come to pass.And, foreseeing and knowing all, why had God answered his prayer? He himself had been a fool.

Why had he craved God's pity? Once his poor child was blither than the panther of the wilderness and happier than the young lamb that sports in springtime.If she was blind, she knew not what it was to see; and if she was deaf, she knew not what it was to hear;and if she was dumb, she knew not what it was to speak.

Nothing did she miss of sight or sound or speech any more than of the wings of the eagle or the dove.Yet he would not be content;he would not be appeased.Oh! subtlety of the devil which had brought this evil upon him!

But the God whom Israel in his agony and his madness rebuked in this manner sent His angel to make a great silence, and the storm lapsed to a breathless quiet.

And when the tempest was gone Naomi's delirium passed away.

She seemed to look, and nothing could she see; and then to listen, and nothing could she hear; and then she clasped the hand of her father that lay over her hand, and sighed and sank down again.

"Ah!"

It was even as if peace had come to her with the thought that she was back in the land of great silence once again, and that the voices which had startled her, and the storm which had terrified her, had been nothing but an evil dream.

In that sweet respite she fell asleep, and Israel forgot the reproaches with which he had reproached his God, and looked tenderly down at her, and said within himself, "It was her baptism.Now she will walk the world with confidence, and never again will she be afraid.

Truly the Lord our God is king over all kingdoms and wise beyond all wisdom!"Then, with one look backward at Naomi where she slept, he crept out of the room on tiptoe.