They all knew it at once.It seemed to them as if every feature of the girl's face had leapt into her eyes; as if the expression of her lips, her brow, her nostrils, had sprung to them: as if her face, so fair before, so full of quivering feeling, must have been nothing until then but a blank.Nay, but they seemed to see her now for the first time.This, only this, was she!
And to Naomi also, at that moment, it was almost as if she had been newly born into life.She was meeting the world at last face to face, eye to eye.Into her darkened chamber, that had never known the light, everything had entered at a blow--the white glare of the sun, the blue sky, the tiled patio, the faces of the Kaid and his wife and his soldiers, and of the old man also, with the unshed tears hanging on the fringe of his eyelid.She could not realise the marvel.
She did not know what vision was.She had not learned to see.
Her trembling soul had gone out from its dark chamber and met the mighty light in his mansion."Oh! oh!" she cried, and stood bewildered and helpless in the midst.The picture of the world seemed to be falling upon her, and she covered her eyes with her hands, that she might abolish it altogether.
Israel saw everything."Naomi!" he cried in a choking voice, and stretched out his hands to her.Then she uncovered her eyes, and looked, and paused and hesitated.
"Naomi!" he cried again, and made a step towards her.She covered her eyes once more that she might shut out the stranger they showed her, and only listen to the voice that she knew so well.Then she staggered into her father's arms.And Israel's heart was big, and he gathered her to his breast, and, turning towards the woman, he said, "Madam, we are in the hands of God.Look! See! He has sent His angel to protect His servant."Meantime, Ben Aboo was quaking with fear.He too, saw the finger of God in the wondrous thing which had come to pass.And, falling back on his maudlin mood, he muttered prayers beneath his breath, as he had done before when the human majesty, the Sultan Abd er-Rahman, was the object of his terror."O Giver of good to all! What is this?