by Lew Wallace
CHAPTER X
THE ROSE OF SPRING
The Prince, as the Jew preferred to be called, kept his house closelyquite a month, resting, not hibernating. He took exercise daily on theflat roof; and walking to and fro there, found three objects ofattraction: the hill to the southwest with the church upon it, thePalace of Blacherne off further in the west, and the Tower of Galata.The latter, across the Golden Horn in the north, arose boldly, like alight-house on a cliff; yet, for a reason--probably because it hadconnection with the subject of his incessant meditations--he pausedoftenest to gaze at the Palace.
He was in his study one day deeply absorbed. The sun, nearing meridian,poured a stream of white light through the south window, flooding thetable at which he sat. That the reader may know something of the pathsthe Mystic most frequented when in meditation, we will make free withone of the privileges belonging to us as a chronicler.
The volume directly in front of him on the table, done in olive woodstrengthened at the corners with silver, was near two feet in length,and one and a half in width; when closed, it would be about one footthick. Now he had many wonderful rare and rich _antiques_, but none sothe apple of his eye as this; for it was one of the fifty Holy Biblesof Greek transcription ordered by Constantine the Great.
At his right, held flat by weights, were the _Sacred Books_ of China,in form a roll of broad-leafed vellum.
At his left, a roll somewhat similar in form and at the moment open,lay the _Rig-Veda_ of the Aryans in Sanscrit.
The fourth book was the _Avesta_ of Zoroaster--a collection of MSS.stitched together, and exquisitely rendered by Parse devas into theZend language.
A fifth book was the _Koran_.
The arrangement of the volumes around the Judean Bible was silentlyexpressive of the student's superior respect; and as from time to time,after reading a paragraph from one of the others, he returned to thegreat central treasure, it was apparent he was making a closecomparison of texts with reference to a particular theme, using theScriptures as a standard. Most of the time he kept the forefinger ofhis left hand on what is now known as the fourteenth verse of the thirdchapter of Exodus--"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and hesaid, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sentme unto you." If, as the Prince himself had declared, religion wereindeed the study of most interest to the greatest number of men, he waslogically consistent in comparing the definitions of _God_ in theBibles of theistic nations. So had he occupied himself since morning.The shrewd reader will at once discern the theme of his comparativestudy.
At length he grew weary of bending over the books, and of thepersistent fixedness of attention required for the pursuit of fineshades of meaning in many different languages. He threw his arms up inaid of a yawn, and turned partly around, his eyes outrunning themovement of his body. The half-introverted glance brightened with agleam, and remained fixed, while the arms dropped down. He could onlylook in wonder at what he saw--eyes black and almost large as his owngazing at him in timid surprise. Beholding nothing but the eyes, he hadthe awesome feeling which attends imagining a spirit suddenly risen;then he saw a forehead low, round, and white, half shaded by fluffs ofdark hair; then a face of cherubic color and regularity, to which theeyes gave an indefinable innocency of expression.
Every one knows the effect of trifles on the memory. A verse or a word,the smell of a flower, a lock of hair, a turn in music, will not merelybring the past back, but invest it with a miraculous recurrency ofevents. The Prince's gaze endured. He stretched his hand out as iffearful lest what he saw might vanish. The gesture was at once animpulse and an expression. There was a time--tradition says it was theyear in which he provoked the curse--when he had wife and child. To oneof them, possibly both, the eyes then looking into his might havebelonged. The likeness unmanned him. The hand he stretched forth felllightly upon the head of the intruder.
"What are you?" he said.
The vagueness of the expression will serve excellently as a definitionof his condition; at the same time it plunged the child addressed intodoubt. Presently she answered:
"I am a little girl."
Accepting the simplicity of the reply as evidence of innocency tooextreme for fear, he took the visitor in his arms, and sat her on hisknee.
"I did not mean to ask what you are, but who?" he said.
"Uel is my father."
"Uel? Well, he is my friend, and I am his; therefore you and I shouldbe friends. What is your name?"
"He calls me Gul Bahar."
"Oh! That is Turkish, and means Rose of Spring. How came you by it?"
"My mother was from Iconium."
"Yes--where the Sultans used to live."
"And she could speak Turkish."
"I see! Gul Bahar is an endearment, not a real name."
"My real name is Lael."
The Prince paled from cheek to brow; his lips trembled; the armencircling her shook; and looking into his eyes, she saw tears dimthem. After a long breath, he said, with inexpressible tenderness, andas if speaking to one standing just behind her--"Lael!" Then, the tearsfull formed, he laid his forehead on her shoulder so his white hairblent freely with her chestnut locks; and sitting passively, butwondering, she heard him sob and sob again and again, like anotherchild. Soon, from pure sympathy, unknowing why, she too began sobbing.Several minutes passed thus; then, raising his face, and observing herresponsive sorrow, he felt the need of explanation.
"Forgive me," he said, kissing her, "and do not wonder at me. I amold--very old--older than thy father, and there have been so manythings to distress me which other men know nothing of, and never can. Ihad once"--
He stopped, repeated the long breath, and gazed as at a far object.
"I too had once a little girl."
Pausing, he dropped his eyes to hers.
"How old are you?"
"Next spring I shall be fourteen," she answered.
"And she was just your age, and so like you--so small, and with suchhair and eyes and face; and she was named Lael. I wanted to call her_Rimah_, for she seemed a song to me; but her mother said, as she was agift from the Lord, she wanted in the fulness of days to give her backto him, and that the wish might become a covenant, she insisted oncalling her Lael, which, in Hebrew--thy father's tongue and mine--meansTo God."
The child, listening with all her soul, was now not in the least afraidof him; without waiting, she made the application.
"You loved her, I know," she said
"How much--Oh, how much!"
"Where is she now?"
"At Jerusalem there was a gate called the Golden Gate. It looked to theeast. The sun, rising over the top of Mount Olivet, struck the platesof gold and Corinthian brass more precious than gold, so it seemed onerosy flame. The dust at its rocky sill, and the ground about it areholy. There, deep down, my Lael lies. A stone that tasked many oxen tomove it covers her; yet, in the last day, she will be among the firstto rise--Of such excellence is it to be buried before that Golden Gate."
"Oh! she is dead!" the child exclaimed.
"She is dead;" and seeing her much affected, he hastened to say, "Ished many tears thinking of her. Ah, how gentle and truthful she was!And how beautiful! I cannot forget her. I would not if I could; but youwho look so like her will take her place in my heart now, and love meas she did; and I will love you even as I loved her. I will take youinto my life, believing she has come again. In the morning I will askfirst, Where is my Lael? At noon, I will demand if the day has beenkind to her; and the night shall not be half set in except I know ithas brought her the sweetness of sleep. Will you be my Lael?"
The question perplexed the child, and she was silent.
Again he asked, "Will you be my Lael?"
The earnestness with which he put the question was that of a hungerless for love than an object to love. The latter is not often accounteda passion, yet it creates necessities which are peremptory as those ofany passion. One of the incidents of the curse he was suffering wasthat h
e knew the certainty of the coming of a day when he must be amourner for whomsoever he should take into his heart, and in this wayexpiate whatever happiness the indulgence might bring him. Neverthelessthe craving endured, at times a positive hunger. In other words, hiswas still a human nature. The simplicity and beauty of the girl wereenough to win him of themselves; but when she reminded him of the otherasleep under a great rock before the gate of the Holy City, when thename of the lost one was brought to him so unexpectedly, it seemedthere had been a resurrection, making it possible for him to go aboutonce more as he was accustomed to in his first household. A third timehe asked, "You will be my Lael?"
"Can I have two fathers?" she returned.
"Oh, yes!" he answered quickly. "One in fact, the other by adoption;and they can both love you the same."
Immediately her face became a picture of childish trust.
"Then I will be your Lael too."
He clasped her close to his breast, and kissed her, crying:
"My Lael has come back to me! God of my fathers, I thank thee!"
She respected his emotion, but at length, with her hand upon hisshoulder, said:
"You and my father are friends, and thinking he came here, I came too."
"Is he at home?"
"I think so."
"Then we will go to him. You cannot be my Lael without his consent."
Presently, hand in hand, they descended the stairs, crossed the street,and were in the shopkeeper's presence.
The room was plainly but comfortably furnished as became theproprietor's fortune and occupation. Closer acquaintance, it is to besaid, had dissipated the latent dread, which, as has been seen, markedUel's first thought of intimacy between the stranger and the child.Seeing him old, and rich, and given to study, not to say careless ofordinary things, the father was beginning to entertain the idea that itmight in some way be of advantage to the child could she become anobject of interest to him. Wherefore, as they entered now, he receivedthem with a smile.
Traces of the emotion he had undergone were in the Prince's face, andwhen he spoke his voice was tremulous.
"Son of Jahdai," he said, standing, "I had once a wife and child. Theyperished-how and when, I cannot trust myself to tell. I have beenfaithful to their memory. From the day I lost them, I have gone up anddown the world hunting for many things which I imagined might renew thehappiness I had from them. I have been prodigal of gratitude,admiration, friendship, and goodwill, and bestowed them singly andtogether, and often; but never have I been without consciousness ofsomething else demanding to be given. Happiness is not all inreceiving. I passed on a long time before it came to me that we arerich in affections not intended for hoarding, and that no one can betruly content without at least one object on which to lavish them.Here"--and he laid his hand on the child's head--"here is mine, foundat last."
"Lael is a good girl," Uel said with pride.
"Yes, and as thou lovest her let me love her," the Prince responded.Then, seeing Uel become serious, he added, "To help thee to my meaning,Lael was my child's name, and she was the image of this one; and as shedied when fourteen, thy Lael's age, it is to me as if the tomb hadmiraculously rendered its victim back to me."
"Prince," said Uel, "had I thought she would not be agreeable to you, Ishould have been sorry."
"Understand, son of Jahdai," the other interposed, "I seek more of theethan thy permission to love her. I want to do by her as though she weremine naturally."
"You would not take her from me?"
"No. That would leave thee bereft as I have been. Like me, thou wouldstthen go up and down looking for some one to take her place in thyheart. Be thou her father still; only let me help thee fashion herfuture."
"Her birthrights are humble," the shopkeeper answered, doubtfully; forwhile in his secret heart he was flattered, his paternal feelingstarted a scruple hard to distinguish from fear.
A light shone brightly in the eyes of the elder Jew, and his head arose.
"Humble!" he said. "She is a daughter of Israel, an inheritor of thefavor of the Lord God, to whom all things are possible. He keeps thedestinies of his people. He--not thou or I--knows to what this littleone may come. As we love her, let us hope the happiest and the highest,and prepare her for it. To this end it were best you allow her to cometo me as to another father. I who teach the deaf and dumb tospeak--Syama and Nilo the elder--will make her a scholar such as doesnot often grace a palace. She shall speak the Mediterranean tongues.There shall be no mysteries of India unknown to her. Mathematics shallbring the heavens to her feet. Especially shall she become wise in theChronicles of God. At the same time, lest she be educated intounfitness for the present conditions of life, and be unsexed, thoushalt find a woman familiar with society, and instal her in thy houseas governess and example. If the woman be also of Israel, so much thebetter; for then we may expect faithfulness without jealousy. Andfurther, son of Jahdai, be niggardly in nothing concerning our Lael.Clothe her as she were the King's daughter. At going abroad, which sheshall do with me in the street and on the water, I would have hersparkle with jewels, the observed of everybody, even the Emperor. Andask not doubtingly, 'Whence the money for all this?' I will find it.What sayest thou now?"
Uel did not hesitate.
"O Prince, as thou dost these things for her--so far beyond the best Ican dream of--take her for thine, not less than mine."
With a beaming countenance, the elder raised the child, and kissed heron the forehead.
"Dost hear?" he said to her. "Now art thou my daughter."
She put her arms about his neck, then held them out to Uel, who tookher, and kissed her, saying:
"Oh my Gul Bahar!"
"Good!" cried the Prince. "I accept the name. To distinguish the livingfrom the dead, I too will call her my Gul Bahar."
Thereupon the men sat, and arranged the new relation, omitting nothingpossible of anticipation.
Next day the Prince's house was opened with every privilege to thechild. A little later on a woman of courtly accomplishment was foundand established under Uel's roof as governess. Thereupon the Mysticentered upon a season during which he forgot the judgment upon him, andall else save Gul Bahar, and the scheme he brought from Cipango. He wasfor the time as other men. In the lavishment of his love, richer of itslong accumulation, he was faithful to his duty of teacher, and wasamply rewarded by her progress in study.
