are most splendidly and most beautifully
built. She robeth herself in fine linen, decketh herself with jewels,
anointeth her hair and maketh her eyes lovely with kohl, and lo! when
she would picture herself she setteth her shoulders awry and slighteth
the grace of her joints and the softness of her flesh. O, that thy
brave spirit had arisen long ago, ere the perversion had become a
heritage, dear to the Egyptian sculptor as his bones! But now, artist
though he be, his eye is so befilmed by ancient use that he sees no
monstrousness in his work. So thou hast nation-wide, nation-old,
nation-defended custom to fight. And alas! thou art but one, Kenkenes,
and I fear for thee."

For once the young sculptor's ready speech failed him. He drew near
her, his eyes shining, his lips parted, drinking every word as if it
were authoritative privilege for him to indulge his love of beauty
without limit and openly. Here was that which he had sought in vain
from those nearest to him--that which he had ceased to believe was to
be found in Egypt--comfort, sympathy, perfect understanding. What if
it came from the lips of an hereditary slave of the Pharaoh--a toiler
in the quarries, an infidel, an alien nomad? If an alien, a slave, an
unbeliever thought so deeply, felt so acutely and responded so
discerningly to such delicate requirements--the slave, the nomad for
him!

"Rachel," he began almost helplessly, "I am beyond extrication in debt
to thee--thou golden, thou undecipherable mystery!"

She flushed to her very brows and her eyes fell quickly.

"I have appealed to all sources from which I might justly expect
sympathy--to men of reason, of power, of mine own kin, and to women of
heart--and not once have I found in them the broad and kindly
understanding which thou hast displayed for me out of the goodness of
thy beautiful heart. Behold! thou hast given speech to my own hidden
longings, summarized my difficulties, foreshadowed my misfortunes,
deplored them--aye, of a truth, heaved my very sighs for me!" His
voice fell and grew reverent. "I would call thee an immortal, but
there is a better title for thee--woman--a true woman--and thou dost
even uplift the name."

For the first time in the history of their acquaintance she laughed,
not mirthfully, but low and very happily, and the fleeting glimpse she
gave him of her eyes showed them radiant and glad. He caught her
hands, the bundle of herbs fell, and drawing her near him