Israel had begun to listen to Naomi’s fancies with a doubting heart.  Where had they come from?  Was it his duty to wipe out these beautiful dream-stories of the maid born blind and newly come upon the joy of hearing with his own sadder tales of what the world was and what life was, and death and heaven?  The question was soon decided for him.

Two days after Naomi had been taken to Marteel she was missed again.  Israel hurried away to the sea, and there he came upon her.  Alone, without help, she had found a boat on the beach and had pushed off on to the water.  It was a double-pronged boat, light as a nutshell, made of ribs of rush, covered with camel-skin, and lined with bark.  In this frail craft she was afloat, and already far out in the bay not rowing, but sitting quietly, and drifting away with the ebbing tide.  The wind was rising, and the line of the foreshore beyond the boat was white with breakers.  Israel put off after her and rescued her.  The motionless eyes began to fill when she heard his voice.

“My darling, my darling!” cried Israel; “where did you think you were going?”

“To heaven,” she answered.

And truly she had all but gone there.

Israel had no choice left to him now.  He must sadden the heart of this creature of joy that he might keep her body safe from peril.  Naomi was no more than a little child, swayed by her impulses alone, but in more danger from herself than any child before her, because deprived of two of her senses until she had grown to be a maid, and no control could be imposed upon her.

At length Israel nerved himself to his bitter task; and one evening while Naomi sat with him on the roof while the sun was setting, and there were noises in the streets below of the Jewish people shuffling back into the Mellah, he told her that she was blind.  The word made no impression upon her mind at first.  She had heard it before, and it had passed her by like a sound that she did not know.  She had been born blind, and therefore could not realise what it was to see.  To open a way for the awful truth was difficult, and Israel’s heart smote him while he persisted.  Naomi laughed as he put his fingers over her eyes that he might show her.  She laughed again when he asked if she could see the people whom she could only hear.  And once more she laughed when the sun had gone down, and the mooddin had come out on the Grand Mosque in the Metamar, and he asked if she could see the old blind man in the minaret, where he was crying, “God is great!  God is great!”

“Can you see him, little one?” said Israel.

“See him?” said Naomi; “why yes, you dear old father, of course I can see him.  Listen,” she cried, ceasing her laughter, lifting one finger, and holding her head aslant, “listen:  God is great!  God is great!  There—­I saw him then.”

“That is only hearing him, Naomi—­hearing him with your ears—­with this ear and with this.  But can you see him, sweetheart?”