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Ra'hel's maid endeavoured to force her way through; the javelins rattled on her head like hammers on an anvil. She began to yell like a bird plucked alive. An officer came out on hearing the tumult; the soldiers stopped beating Thamar. "What does this woman want?" said the officer, "and why are you beating her in this way?"
"Dry your tears and be not so sorrowful. You love Poëri? Well, love him, and I shall not be jealous. Yacoub, a patriarch of our race, had two wives; one was called Ra'hel as I am, and the other Leah. Yacoub preferred Ra'hel, and yet Leah, who was not beautiful like you, lived happily with him." Tahoser knelt at Ra'hel's feet and kissed her hand. Ra'hel raised her and put her arm around her waist.
She remained thus, her head in Ra'hel's bosom, wetting it with her hot tears. Sometimes a sob she could not repress shook her convulsively upon her rival's breast. The complete yielding up of herself, and her evident misery, touched Ra'hel. Tahoser confessed herself beaten, and implored her pity by mute supplication, appealing to her womanly generosity. Ra'hel, much moved, kissed her and said,
She could not understand how she happened to be in that room, on the bed, where but a moment ago she had seen Poëri and the young Israelite seated side by side with clasped hands, speaking of love, while she, breathless, amazed, watched through the crack of the wall; but soon memory returned, and with it the feeling of her situation. The light fell full on Ra'hel's face.
Thamar grinned with satisfaction; she was proud of her perspicacity, and almost glad to see her suspicions as regarded the stranger partially justified. "Yes," replied Poëri, quietly. The bright eyes of the old woman sparkled with malicious curiosity. Ra'hel's face resumed its expression of trustfulness; she no longer doubted her lover.
She entertained towards the race of Egypt, a blind, fierce, unreasoning, almost bestial hatred, and the thought of breaking Tahoser's heart delighted her. Once in the hands of the Pharaoh, Ra'hel's rival would be unable to escape; the granite walls of the palace would keep their prey. "Where is she?" said Pharaoh; "tell me the spot. I want to see her at once."
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