Fair to Look Upon | Page 7

from good society, why should we
censure the same conduct when we are so much more civilized,
enlightened and liberal in our views?
And in an incredibly short space of time he adorned her with earrings
and bracelets, and she invited him home with her, and he actually went
and made it all right with her mother and big brother by making a
prepossessing exhibition of piety, for you remember how he told them
"he bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord."
He told them of Isaac, in whose name he sued for Rebekah's fair hand.
He didn't say that Isaac was handsome, virtuous, talented or ambitious,
but he said, "the Lord hath blessed my master and he is very great; and
he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and maid
servants and men servants, and camels and asses," and unto his son
Isaac "hath he given all that he hath," for this astute man of the world
seemed to know that the surest and quickest way to win a woman was
to show her a golden pathway strewn with the gems of power, luxury
and ambition.
And the big brother did not pull out his watch, look at it in a
business-like way and say:

[Illustration: "LET ME, I PRAY THEE, DRINK A LITTLE WATER
OF THY PITCHER."]
"Rebekah, pack your trunk and be ready to take the 6:40 fast express."
And her mother did not smile and say, "we're so delighted and honored,
I'm sure. Of course she will go." Not at all. They knew better even in
those days than to try and coerce or coax a woman to do anything she
didn't want to do, and so they simply said:
"We will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth."
Then the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and
raiment, and gave them to Rebekah; and he gave also to her brother and
to her mother precious things, and then we are naively told that
Rebekah said:
"I will go."
Rebekah was a woman of decision and knew a good thing when she
saw it, and so she did not wait to prepare a stunning trousseau or get
out wedding cards and invitations fine enough to make all the girls of
Nahor sigh in envy and admiration, but she departed at once. Now
Isaac was of a poetical nature, and sought the solitude of the fields at
eventide to meditate. Like most young men who have a love affair on
hand he wanted to be alone and dream dreams and see visions.
And, as good luck would have it, just at this sentimental and opportune
moment, Rebekah hove in sight.
And Isaac lifted up his eyes and beheld her; a woman with heaven in
her eyes, a mouth sweet enough to make a man forget everything but
the roses of life, and a form seductive enough to tempt the very gods
from on high.
[Illustration: (I will go.)]
And she beheld a man, young and strong and handsome, the touch of
whose hand opened the gates of glory to her soul, "and she became his

wife, and he loved her," thereby putting himself on record as the first
man in the world we have any sacred official notification of as having
loved his wife.
So the days and months, brightened by smiles and tarnished by tears,
dropped into the wreck-strewn, motionless ocean of the past, and in the
course of human events two little boys played marbles in the tent of
Isaac, and Rebekah scored the rather doubtful distinction of going on
record as the first woman who ever doubled expectations and presented
her husband with twins.
[Illustration: (Two little boys played marbles.)]
At this period the fair Rebekah begins to get in her work as a
disobedient wife, a deceitful, intriguing woman and
an-all-round-have-her-own-way variety of her sex.
"Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob," and we conclude from
that, as well as from the actual facts in the case, that there were
domestic tornadoes, conjugal cyclones and general unpleasantness all
round. About this time there was another famine in the land and Isaac
and Rebekah (and others) went into the land of the Philistines to dwell,
and of course Rebekah's beauty attracted universal attention, and the
men of the place questioned Isaac about her and he replied that she was
his sister, as he said, "lest the men of the place should kill me for
Rebekah," because she was fair to look upon.
In that age it appears when a man fell in love with a woman he killed
her husband, instead of hoodwinking and outwitting him as they do in
this progressive era, but I suppose in spite of the awful chance of losing
her husband