gether lovingly of how they
would name the child when the time came to name it. Israel concluded
that if it was a son it should be called David, and Ruth decided that if
it was a daughter it should be called Naomi. And Ruth delighted to tell
of how when it was weaned she should take it up to the synagogue and
say, "O Lord: I am the woman that knelt before Thee praying. For this
child I prayed, and Thou hast heard my prayer." And Israel told of how
his son should grow up to be a Rabbi to minister before God, and how
in those days it should come to pass that the children of his father's
enemies should crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of
bread. Thus they built themselves castles in the air for the future of
the child that was to come.

Ruth's time came at last, and it was also the time of the Feast of
the Passover, being in the month of Nisan. This was a cause of joy to
Israel, for he was eager to triumph over his enemies face to face, and
he could not wait eight other days for the Feast of the circumcision. So
he set a supper fit for a king: the fore-leg of a sheep and the fore-leg
of an ox, the egg roasted in ashes, the balls of Charoseth, the three
Mitzvoth, and the wine, And by the time the supper was ready the midwife
had been summoned, and it was the day of the night of the Seder.

Then Israel sent messengers round the Mellah to summon his guests. Only
his enemies he invited, his bitterest foes, his unceasing revilers, and
among them were the three base usurers, Abraham Pigman, Judah ben Lolo,
and Reuben Maliki. "They cursed me," he thought, "and I shall look on
their confusion." His heart thirsted to summon Rebecca Bensabbot also,
but well he knew that her dainty masters would not sit at meat with her.

And when the enemies were bidden, all of them excused themselves and
refused, saying it was the Feast of the Passover, when no man should
sit save in his own house and at his own table. But Israel was not to be
gainsaid. He went out to them himself, and said, "Come, let bygones be
bygones. It is the feast of our nation. Let us eat and drink together."
So, partly by his importunity, but mainly in their bewilderment, yet
against all rule and custom, they suffered themselves to go with him.

And when they were come into his house and were seated about his table
in the patio, and he had washed his hands and taken the wine and blessed
it, and passed it to all, and they had drunk together, he could not ke