Signing to Nehushta to bring her the child, for now she could no longer speak, she scanned it earnestly in the new-born light, then placed her hand upon its head and blessed it.

Nehushta she blessed also, thanking her with her eyes and kissing her.

Then again she seemed to fall asleep, and presently, when Nehushta looked at her, Rachel was dead.
Nehushta understood and gave a great and bitter cry, since to her after the death of her first mistress, this woman had been all her life.

As a child she had nursed her; as a maiden shared her joys and sorrows; as a wife and widow toiled day and night fiercely and faithfully to console her in her desolation and to protect her in the dreadful dangers through which she had passed.

Now, to end it all, it was her lot to receive her last breath and to take into her arms her new-born infant.
Then and there Nehushta swore that as she had done by the mother she so would do by the child till the day when her labours ended.