The Scapegoat | Page 9

his wife's barrenness he was now
angry with the anger of a proud man whose pride had been abased.
What was the worth of it, after all, that he had conquered the fate that
had first beaten him down? What did it come to that the world was at
his feet? Heaven was above him, and the poorest man in the Mellah
who was the father of a child might look down on him with contempt.
That night sleep forsook his eyelids, and his mouth was parched and his
spirit bitter. And sometimes he reproached himself with a thousand
offences, and sometimes he searched the Scriptures, that he might
persuade himself that he had walked blameless before the Lord in the
ordinances and commandments of God.
Meantime, Ruth, in her solitude, remembered that it was now three

years since she had been married to Israel, and that by the laws, both of
their race and their country, a woman who had been long barren might
straightway be divorced by her husband.
Next morning a message of business came from the Khaleefa, but Israel
would not answer it. Then came an order to him from the Governor, but
still he paid no heed. At length he heard a feeble knock at the door of
his room. It was Ruth, his wife, and he opened to her and she entered.
"Send me away from you!" she cried. "Send me away!"
"Not for the place of the Kaid," he answered stoutly; "no, nor the
throne of the Sultan!"
At that she fell on his neck and kissed him, and they mingled their tears
together. But he comforted her at length, and said, "Look up, my
dearest! look up! I am a proud man among men, but it is even as the
Lord may deal with me. And which of us shall murmur against God?"
At that word Ruth lifted her head from his bosom and her eyes were
full of a sudden thought.
"Then let us ask of the Lord," she whispered hotly, "and surely He will
hear our prayer."
"It is the voice of the Lord Himself!" cried Israel; "and this day it shall
be done!"
At the time of evening prayers Israel and Ruth went up hand in hand
together to the synagogue, in a narrow lane off the Sok el Foki. And
Ruth knelt in her place in the gallery close under the iron grating and
the candles that hung above it, and she prayed: "O Lord, have pity on
this Thy servant, and take away her reproach among women. Give her
grace in Thine eyes, O Lord, that her husband be not ashamed. Grant
her a child of Thy mercy, that his eye may smile upon her. Yet not as
she willeth, but as Thou willest, O Lord, and Thy servant will be
satisfied."

But Israel stood long on the floor with his hand on his heart and his
eyes to the ground, and he called on God as a debtor that will not be
appeased, saying: How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? My enemies
triumph over me and foretell Thy doom upon me. They sit in the
lurking-places of the streets to deride me. Confound my enemies, O
Lord, and rebuke their counsels. Remember Ruth, I beseech Thee, that
she is patient and her heart is humbled. Give her children of Thy
servant, and her first-born shall be sanctified unto Thee. Give her one
child, and it shall be Thine--if it is a son, to be a Rabbi in Thy
synagogues. Hear me, O Lord, and give heed to my cry, for behold, I
swear it before Thee. One child, but one, only one, son or daughter, and
all my desire is before Thee. How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?"
The message of the Khaleefa which Israel had not answered in his
trouble was a request from the Shereef of Wazzan that he should come
without delay to that town to count his rent-charges and assess his dues.
This request the Governor had transformed into a command, for the
Shereef was a prince of Islam in his own country, and in many
provinces the believers paid him tribute. So in three days' time Israel
was ready to set out on his journey, with men and mules at his door,
and camels packed with tents. He was likely to be some months absent
from Tetuan, and it was impossible that Ruth should go with him. They
had never been separated before, and Ruth's concern was that they
should be so long parted, but Israel's was a deeper matter.
"Ruth," he said when his time came, "I am going away from you, but
my enemies remain. They see evil in all my doings, and in this act also