Chapter 2

The return to Arabia was not as difficult as Antipas had feared. He was regarded with deference. It was obvious that his shameful neglect of the Princess had been a well-kept secret. On the surface Arnon had been treated kindly in Jerusalem. King Aretas received his son-in-law graciously enough, though without any ostentatious amiability, an attitude readily explained by his habitual reticence.

The Councillors, promptly assembling to pay their respects, were forced to concede to one another (for none of them knew how badly their Princess had fared but Ilderan and Tema) that if Antipas were not a Jew he would be almost likeable.

‘It isn’t his fault that he’s a Jew,’ remarked Adbeel.

‘No,’ agreed Mishma; ‘but it is a great misfortune.’

Arnon had wondered whether there might be some constraint in her meeting with Zendi, but when he called with his pretty wife Rennah, Dumah’s daughter, the air was instantly cleared for them all by little Fata. Rennah, presently to bear a child, had taken Arnon’s uncommonly beautiful baby into her arms, while the others, for various reasons, beamed happily over her unselfconscious display of maternal tenderness. They all laughed merrily when Fara laid a small pink palm against Rennah’s cheek—and smiled. Antipas, who had a talent for making friends easily, was delighted with his daughter’s charming response to Rennah’s caresses.

‘What an adorable child!’ declared Zendi.

‘I never saw her take to any one so quickly,’ said Arnon. ‘I’m quite jealous of you, Rennah.’

‘Beautiful women,’ commented Antipas, ‘do not have to be jealous of one another.’

Arnon’s eyes had brightened at that. There was no doubt now that the Prince was proving to be a good husband. Even Aretas, standing by, seemed gratified.

‘They are beautiful,’ he put in unexpectedly, for he was not given to compliments—’all three of them!’

And so—the return of Antipas to Arabia was made much easier for him than he had expected or deserved. The baby Fara had paved his way. The Arabians came from near and far to see this endearing child whose extraordinary beauty was on everybody’s tongue. Grim old shepherds, who had bitterly resented Arnon’s marriage to a Jew, came to see if her baby was really as lovely as the rumour, and found the Prince so obviously devoted to his family that they went away to report favourably.

‘He may be a Jew,’ they said, ‘but he is doing well by the Princess.’