"Thy blind trust hath already wrought havoc with thee. Let it not
bring heavy punishment upon thy head. Thou hast dealt kindly with me,
and I am beholden to thee. Give me leave to discharge my debt."
The prince looked stubbornly at Aaron for a moment, but the doubt that
had begun to assert itself in his mind clamored for proof or refutation.
"Say on," he said.
"The story is long," the Hebrew explained mildly, "and the sun is
ardent. There are friends in yonder house. Let us ask the shelter of
their roof for an hour."
Gathering his robes about him with peculiar grace, he went through the
grass toward a low, capacious tent, pitched by a trickling branch of
the great canal. Seti followed moodily.
A black-haired Israelitish woman, sitting on the earth before the
lifted side of the tent, arose, and reverently kissed the hem of
Aaron's robes. Her dark-eyed brood appeared at various angles of the
tent, and at a sign and a word from the woman they did obeisance and
hailed the ancient visitor in soft Hebrew.
After a short colloquy between Aaron and the woman of Israel, the
children were dismissed to play in the fields and the woman carried the
bowl and basket of lentils out of ear-shot of her house.
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