Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/196

Rh happiness come. See, and look for it laughing, and laughing tell me, Esther.&quot;

The merriment seemed unnatural to her; and, as if to entreat him from it, she answered, sorrowfully, &quot;Woe’s me, father, that I should ever forget this day!&quot;

His hands fell down the instant, and his chin, dropping upon his breast, lost itself in the muffling folds of flesh composing his lower face.

&quot;True, most true, my daughter!&quot; he said, without looking up. &quot;This is the twentieth day of the fourth month. To-day, five years ago, my Rachel, thy mother, fell down and died. They brought me home broken as thou seest me, and we found her dead of grief. Oh, to me she was a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-Gedi! I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. We laid her away in a lonely place—in a tomb cut in the mountain; no one near her. Yet in the darkness she left me a little light, which the years have increased to a brightness of morning.&quot; He raised his hand and rested it upon his daughter's head. &quot;Dear Lord, I thank thee that now in my Esther my lost Rachel liveth again!&quot;

Directly he lifted his head, and said, as with a sudden thought, &quot;Is it not clear day outside?&quot;

&quot;It was, when the young man came in.&quot;

&quot;Then let Abimelech come and take me to the garden, where I can see the river and the ships, and I will tell thee, dear Esther, why but now my mouth filled with laughter, and my tongue with singing, and my spirit was like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.&quot;

In answer to the bell a servant came, and at her bidding pushed the chair, set on little wheels for the purpose, out of the room to the roof of the lower house, called by him his garden. Out through the roses, and by beds of lesser flowers, all triumphs of careful attendance, but now unnoticed, he was rolled to a position from which he could view the palace-tops over against him on the island, the bridge in lessening perspective to the farther shore, and the river below the bridge crowded with vessels, all