They went out alone into the garden of the figs and pomegranates. The
bright sun of early noon came down like a shower of gold. The doves
made their faint thunder. The locust span his tiny wheel. From afar
off, where the temple was a-building, came the clink of hammer on
stone, the thud of ax on wood, the yo-hoing, the grunts, the curses of
the workmen as they hoisted a beam into place.... And Solomon was shy
as a girl....
"You are wondering why I came," Balkis said. "Will you sit down with
me?" They sat under a great cedar-tree. The pigeons thundered. The
bees droned among the apricots. The lizard flashed upon the wall. "I
wonder myself.... But you can tell me, Solomon. You are so wise."
"Am I?" There was a little note of bitterness in his voice.
"Are n't you?"
"I don't know," he said. "I--I don't know."
"But all the questions that are put, you answer them. All the matters
of judgment you pass on. Of course you are wise, Solomon."
"It is easy, Balkis, very easy, that sort of wisdom, for Nathan, as far
back as I can remember, has been dinning precepts and examples into my
ears. And at times, when things are difficult, comes a little
inspiration, like a little unpremeditated bar on a musician's psaltery.
And the tricks of reading a riddle are no more than the mason's tricks
of arranging stones. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty
themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south or
toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
be. And if that is wisdom, then I have wisdom. But I know not what is
the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her
that is with child."
"Poor Solomon!"
"O Balkis, I wanted to go out with the young men, and to understand
what they all understand and I do not understand: the way of an eagle
in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; to hunt and fish with
them and know the way of a ship in the midst of the sea. But I never
could, Balkis, for while still a boy Nathan made of me a man, an old
wise man. Woe to thee, O land, he prophesied, when thy king is a
child, and thy princes eat in the morning! So I 've always been a man,
Balkis, a wise old man."
"Dear, poor Solomon! Never were young."
"Never, dear Balkis, never. I must never be young, never do a wild
boyish thing. Dead flies cause the ointment of an apothecary to send
forth a stinking savor; so doth a little folly him that is in
reputation for wisdom and honor. O Balkis, the long wise days!"
"Poor Solomon! Poor dear Solomon!"
"O Balkis," he cried suddenly, "you came from afar to hear my wisdom,
and you heard a little mouse-like noise. And you wanted to commune
with me on what was in your heart, and I 've shown you my own heart,
that is like a troubled pool. Madness is in my heart while I live, and
after that I go to the dead. O Balkis, all is vanity and vexation of
spirit."
"Hush! hush dear Solomon!"
And very suddenly his body broke in sobs, and his dark head fell on her
leaning shoulder. There was a mist in her Arab eyes as she held him,
as she patted him:
"Hush, dear Solomon!"
V
And in the dusk of day, when the master masons and their helpers had
gone, he brought her to the temple he was building to his god, the
great temple that Hiram, the trader king of Tyre, was embellishing for
the reward of twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Balkis's eyes
flashed with anger at the cunning of the Phoenician king. It was such
a shame to take advantage of the boy! Poor wise-foolish king! He was
like a child showing his toys.
"See these brass bases, Balkis, with the borders of lions and oxen and
cherubim. And the brazen wheels at each base. They say there are
cunning brass-workers in India, but surely there is no more beautiful
work than this. Surely they cannot beat this."
"Of course not, my dearest. Of course not."
"And come with me, Balkis, to where the watchmen are, and I will show
you marvels such as you never saw before: an altar of gold and a table
of gold and ten candlesticks of pure gold with the flowers and the
lamps and the tongs of gold; and bowls and snuffers and basins and the
spoons and the censers of pure gold. Come."
They went toward the king's house. On the way Solomon stopped suddenly
and looked at his temple.
"O Balkis," he asked, "you have come through Egypt. How much bigger is
my temple than the pyramids and labyrinth? I 've heard so much of
them."
"Bigger?"
"Yes, how much bigger?"
She looked at the little building, twenty cubits broad, sixty cubits
long. Twelve paces one way, forty another. For an instant laughter
bubbled in her, but gave way to pathos, and her sloe-black eyes were
wet again. O poor lad!
"Is it very much bigger than the pyramids, Balkis?" he asked eagerly.
"Oh, lots bigger. Much."
"Why, Balkis, you are crying. Are you lonely?"
"Yes, a little homesick," she lied again.
He came toward her and kissed her, in kindness, but the touch of lips
fired, startled them both, sent their blood pounding in the soft Syrian
gloom.
"O Balkis!" his voice trembled. "O Balkis!"
"Solomon!" she uttered softly. "Dear Solomon!"