"Tell me that sad story," he said.
"Sir, I will both tell it and prove it to be true"; and Nehushta told
him all from the beginning to the end, producing to his sight the tokens
which she had taken from the breast of her mistress, and repeating her
last message to him word for word. When she had finished, Ithiel turned
away and mourned a while. Then, speaking aloud, he put up a prayer to
God for guidance--for without prayer these people would not enter upon
anything, however simple--and came back to Nehushta, who stood by the
oxen.
"Good and faithful woman," he said, "who it would seem are not fickle
and light-hearted, or worse, like the multitude of your sex--perchance
because your dark skin shields you from their temptations--you have set
me in a cleft stick, and there I am held fast. Know that the rule of my
order is that we should have naught to do with females, young or old;
therefore how can I receive you or the child?"
"Of the rules of your order, sir, I know nothing," answered Nehushta
sharply, since the words about the colour of her skin had not pleased
her; "but of the rules of nature I do know, and something of the rules
of God also, for, like my mistress and this infant, I am a Christian.
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