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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
October 1926
Where ‘ the Sartoar aa a Fluherman Tolled, Others as Fishermen P ly Their Trade. The Sea o f Galilee In Pal estine presents a calm, un- trammeled appearance to those accustomed to the rapid pace o f life In large cities. In much the same manner that Jesus Ashed, the Ashermen o f today con tinue to ply one o f the old est o f the trades by means o f which life Is sustained. J
The Gilliams Service. New Turk
"Fancy finding a ‘vis-a-vis,’ and of this luxurious type, too, ^ a library. I always think it is a mistake to have the library of the house so stiff. Sometimes the library is pos itively forbidding.” She laughed lightly again, as she said, “ I’m going off into a disquisition on interiors, so— shall we sit here?” She dropped into one of the curves of the “ vis-a-vis,” and he took the other. For half-an-hour their talk on their pet subject was more or less general; then he startled her by asking: “ Do you know the Christian New Testament, at all? “ The Gospels I have read," she replied, “ and am fairly familiar with them. I have read, too, the final book, ‘The Revelation,’ which though a sealed book to me, as far as knowledge of its meaning goes, yet has, I confess, a peren nial attraction for me." She lifted her great eyes to his, a little quizzical expres sion in them, as she added: “ You are surprised that I, a Jewess, should speak thus of the Gentile Scriptures!” Then, without giving him time to reply, she went on: “ But why did you ask whether I knew anything of the New Testament?” “ Because, apropos of what I said a moment ago anent the repetition of history, the Christ of the New Testament declared that ‘as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.’ ” She nodded her beautiful head, as though she would assent to the correctness of his quotation. “ Now I make no profession of being ultra-Christian,” he went on, “ but I know the letter of the Bible quite as well as most Teachers of Christianity, and without intending any egotism I am sure I dare to say that I know it infinitely better than the average Christian. And if I were a teacher or preacher of the Christian faith I would raise my voice most vehemently against the wilful, sinful ignorance of the Bible on the part of professed Christians. Members of the various so-called 'churches’ seem to know everything except their Bibles. Mention a passage In Spenser, William Words worth, Whittier, Longfellow, Tennyson, Browning, or even Swinburne, William Watson, Charles Fox, Carleton, or (Continued on page 599)
prefer that we walked and talked, I will gladly accommo date myself to your time and your convenience." He assured her that he had made no plans for the mor row, and that he would be delighted to meet her In the library, for a good long “ confab” over the subject that evi dently possessed a mutual attraction for them. Mentally, while he studied her, he decided that her chief charm, in his eyes, was her absolute naturalness and uncon ventionality. “ But to some men," he mused, “ what a dan ger zone she would prove. Allied to her great beauty, her wealth, and her gifts, there is a way with her that would make her almost absolutely irresistible it she had set her heart on anything!" An hour later that opinion deepened within him as he listened to her singing in the drawing-room. She had been known to bluntly, flatly refuse an Emperor who had asked her to sing, and yet to take a little Sicilian street singer’s tambourine from her hand, and sing the coppers and silver out of the pockets of the folk who had crowded the market place at the first liquid notes of her song. She rarely sang in the houses of her hosts and hostesses. Tonight she had voluntarily gone to the piano, accompanying herself. She sang in Hungarian, a folk-song, and a love song of the people of her own land,— yearning and wistful, full of that curious, mystical melancholy that always appealed to her own soul, and which characterizes some of the oldest of the Hungarian folk-songs. Her second song finished, amid the profoundest hush she rose as suddenly from the piano as she had seated herself. A little later she was missed from the company. She had slipped away to her room, after a quiet goodnight to her table-companion, Colonel Youlter. • • • • • At ten-thirty next morning Judith Montmarte entered the library. The Colonel was already there. He rose to meet her, saying, “ Where will you sit? Where will you be most comfortable?" There was a decidedly “ comfo" air about the luxuriously- furnished room. The eyes of the beautiful woman— she was twenty-eight— swept the apartment and, finally, resting upon a delightful “ vis-a-vis," she laughed merrily as she said:
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