On the other hand, though Naomi had been deaf, yet if she could have had sight her father might have held intercourse with her by the light of her eyes, and if she felt pain he must have seen it, and if she had found pleasure he must have known it, and what man is, and what woman is, and what the world and what the sea and what the sky, would have been as an open book for her to read.

But, being blind and deaf together, and, by fault of being deaf, being dumb as well, what word was to describe the desolation of her state, the blank void of her isolation--cut off, apart, aloof, shut in, imprisoned, enchained, a soul without communion with other souls: alive, and yet dead?
Thus, realising Naomi's condition in; the deep infirmity of her nature, Israel set himself to consider how he could reach her darkened and silent soul.

And first he tried to learn what good gifts were left to her, that he might foster them to her advantage and nourish them to his own great comfort and joy.

Yet no gift whatever could he find in her but the one gift only whereof he had known from the beginning--the gift of touch and feeling.

With this he must make her to see, or else her light should always be darkness, and with this he must make her to hear, or silence should be her speech for ever.
Then he remembered that during his years in England he had heard strange stories of how the dumb had been made to speak though they could not hear, and the blind and deaf to understand and to answer.