Read Online Peony: A Novel of China by Pearl S. Buck - Free Book Online Page A

he went on. He put out his hand for Leah, and she took it in both her own. “Even as Esther, the queen, went out to serve her people, so shall you, my daughter, enter the house of Ezra.”
    “But they belong to our people, Father, while Esther went to the heathen,” Leah said.
    “It is only here near the synagogue where I feel sure of sacred ground,” the Rabbi replied. He sighed and lifted his face to the sun. “Oh, that I could see!” he cried.
    “Let me stay with you!” Leah cried, and she took his arm and laid it across her shoulders.
    “No, no,” the Rabbi said quickly. “I do not complain. God leads us. He has His will to perform in the house of Ezra, and He has chosen you, my daughter, to be His instrument. Come, take me to my room and let me pray until I search out His meaning.”
    The Rabbi drew her along as he walked. It was he that led on the familiar ground, not she. She leaned her head against his shoulder. Behind them Aaron stood looking after them, then he darted out of the gate. The Rabbi felt for the high doorstep and then lifted his foot over it.
    “My children,” he began. Leah turned her head and saw that her brother had gone.
    “Aaron is not here, Father,” she said gently.
    Usually she would not have told him that Aaron was gone. It was she that kept peace between them, urging the old father to remember that the son was still young. But now she needed to speak the truth.
    “Gone!” the old man cried. “But he was here a moment ago.”
    “You see why I should not leave you,” Leah said. “When I am not here he will always be away and you will be left alone with a serving woman.”
    “I must deal with him before Jehovah,” the Rabbi said, and his face was moved with distress.
    “Father, let me stay with you—to care for you both,” Leah pleaded.
    But the Rabbi shook off her hands. He stood in the middle of the floor and struck his staff against the stones under his feet. “It is I who have hidden the truth from you, my child,” he wailed. “It is I who have been weak. I know what my son is. No, you must go. I will do my duty.”
    “Father, Aaron is young—what can you do?”
    “I can curse my son, even as Isaac cursed Esau!” the Rabbi said with strange energy. “I can cast him out of the house of the Lord forever!”
    Leah clasped her hands on his shoulder. “Oh, how can I go?” she mourned.
    The father controlled himself. He hesitated, turned, fumbled for his chair, and sat down. He was trembling and there was a fine sweat on his high pale forehead. “Now,” he said, “now—hear me—I am not your earthly father while I speak these words. I am your rabbi. I command you!”
    Leah stood hesitating, waiting, biting her red lips, her hands clenched at her sides. Her eyes were wide and burning, but she did not speak. There was a moment of silence and then the Rabbi rose, leaned on his staff, and spoke in a deep and unearthly voice: “Thus saith the Lord to His servant Leah: Go forth, remembering who thou art, O Leah! Reclaim the House of Ezra for Me! Cause them to remember, father and son, that they are Mine, descendants of those whom I led, by the hand of My servant Moses, out of the land of Egypt, into the promised land. There My people sinned. They took to themselves women from among the heathen and they worshiped false gods, and I cast them out again until they had repented. But I have not forgotten them. They shall come to Me, and I will save them, and I will return them again to their own land. And how shall I do this except by the hands of those who have not forgotten Me?”
    The Rabbi’s face was glorified as he spoke these words. His staff fell to the ground and he stretched out his arms. Leah listened, her head high, and when he was silent she bowed her head.
    “I will obey you,” she whispered. “I will do my best, Father.”
    He faltered. The strength went out of him and he sank upon the seat from which he had risen. “The will of the Lord be done,”