He went home and shut himself in his room, and throughout that day he let no one come near to him.
Israel knew his own heart at last.

At his wife's barrenness he was now angry with the anger of a proud man whose pride had been abased.

What was the worth of it, after all, that he had conquered the fate that had first beaten him down?
What did it come to that the world was at his feet?
Heaven was above him, and the poorest man in the Mellah who was the father of a child might look down on him with contempt.
That night sleep forsook his eyelids, and his mouth was parched and his spirit bitter.

And sometimes he reproached himself with a thousand offences, and sometimes he searched the Scriptures, that he might persuade himself that he had walked blameless before the Lord in the ordinances and commandments of God.
Meantime, Ruth, in her solitude, remembered that it was now three years since she had been married to Israel, and that by the laws, both of their race and their country, a woman who had been long barren might straightway be divorced by her husband.
Next morning a message of business came from the Khaleefa, but Israel would not answer it.

Then came an order to him from the Governor, but still he paid no heed.