e have to recompense her?"

And they, made glad that the king had summoned them only for this, at
once filled the bowl by casting into it small and large silver coin. And
when, with tears, she began to thank the king, he smiled radiantly and
said:

"Wait, this is not yet all. This morning's wind has bestowed joy upon me
as well, which I did not expect. And therefore, to the gifts of these
merchants, I shall add my kingly gift also."

And he commanded Adoniram, the treasurer, to put on top of the money of
the merchants enough gold coin to cover the silver entirely out of
sight.

Solomon desired to see none unhappy on this day. He distributed more
rewards, pensions, and gifts than he sometimes did within a whole year,
and he pardoned Ahimaaz, the governor of the land of Naphtali, against
whom his wrath had flamed before, because of his lawless levies; and he
commuted the faults of many who had transgressed the law, nor did he
overlook any of the petitions of his subjects,--save one.

When the king was passing out from the House at Lebanon through the
small southern door, one in a garment of yellow leather stood up in his
path,--a squat, broad-shouldered man, darkly-ruddy and morose of face,
with a black, bushy beard, with a neck like a bull's, and an austere
gaze from underneath shaggy, black eyebrows. This was the high priest
of Moloch's temple. He uttered but one word in a supplicating voice:

"King!..."

In the bronze belly of his god were seven divisions: one for meal,
another for doves, the third for sheep, the fourth for rams, the fifth
for calves, the sixth for beeves; but the seventh, meant for living
infants brought by their mothers, had long stood empty at the interdict
of the king.

Solomon walked in silence past the priest, but the latter stretched out
his hands after him and exclaimed with supplication:

"King! I adjure thee by thy joy!... Show me this kindness, O king, and I
shall reveal to thee what danger threatens thy life."

Solomon made no reply; and the eyes of the priest, who had clenched his
powerful hands into fists, followed him to the exit with a ferocious
glare.

CHAPTER SIX

[Illustration]

VI.

At nightfall Sulamith went to that spot in the old city where, in long
rows, stretched the shops of the moneychangers, usurers, and dealers
in sweet-smelling condiments. There she sold to a jeweller for three
drachmas and one dinar her only valuable,--her earrings for festal da