Adah

“ It seems as if I couldn't say 'you' to thee any more," and a delicate color stole into her face.
"We all feel as if thee were one of us now," explained Mrs. Yocomb gently, "and I trust that life will henceforth seem to Adah a more sacred thing, and worthy of more sacred uses." And she passed into the house to prepare for supper.
Mr. Yocomb followed her, and Reuben went down to the barn.
"If you live to grow like your mother, Miss Adah, you will be the most beautiful woman in the world," I said frankly, for I felt as if I could speak to her almost as I would to Zillah. ”

“ It was a direct question, and Adah answered frankly.
"It was in New York," while Anna quickly rejoined.
"Oh, I'm so glad! for now you'll let me tell Brother John. He has lived there so much he must know everybody, or at all events he may find that man and bring him back. You will have to give his name, of course."
Adah's face was white as ashes, as she replied:
"No, no—oh, no. He could not find him. Nobody can but God. I am willing to wait His time. Don't tell your brother, Miss Anna—don't." ”

“ In reply I said:
"Theories and facts do not always harmonize any more than colors. Miss Adah's youth and rural life have not given her much opportunity for observation and comparison, and yet few ladies on your Avenue have truer eyes for harmony in color than she."
"Mr. Morton being the judge," said the banker, with a profound and smiling bow. "Permit me to add that Miss Adah has at this moment only to glance in a mirror to obtain an idea of perfect harmony in color," and his eyes lingered admiringly on her face. ”

“ I was worsted in this encounter, and I saw the old gleam of mirthfulness in Miss Warren's eyes. How well I remembered when I first saw that evanescent illumination—the quick flash of a bright, genial spirit. "She delights in her lover's keen thrusts," was now my thought, "and is pleased to think I'm no match for him. She should remember that it's a poor time for a man to tilt when he can scarcely sit erect." But Adah's pleasure was unalloyed. ”

“ Cain! walk not with this Spirit.
Bear with what we have borne, and love me—I
Love thee.
Lucifer.‍More than thy mother, and thy sire?
Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too?
Lucifer.‍No, not yet;
It one day will be in your children.
Adah.‍What!
Must not my daughter love her brother Enoch?
Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain.
Adah.‍Oh, my God!
Shall they not love and bring forth things that love
Out of their love? have they not drawn their milk
Out of this bosom? ”

“ ADRIEL
How?
What reason can be? women are not clear;
And least unto themselves. ISHUI
Or to their fools. [He goes to curtains and draws out Adah.]
Your mistress, Merab, girl, whom does she love?
Unclench your hands. ADAH
I hate her. ISHUI
Insolent!
Answer; I am not milky Jonathan.
Answer; and for the rest—You hear? ADAH
She loves—
The shepherd David! ADRIEL
Who, girl? ADAH
I care not!
She is unkind; I wilt not spy for her
On Michal, and I’ll tell her secrets all!
And David does not love her—and she raves. ISHUI
Off to your sleep; now off— [Makes to strikes her.]
ADRIEL
Ishui, no. ”

“ This Anna promised to do, suggesting that Adah should make the carpet, as that would save a little.
“I wish, mother,” she added, “that you would let her arrange the rooms altogether. She has exquisite taste, besides the faculty of making the most of things.” Mrs. Richards, too, had confidence in Adah’s taste, and so it was finally arranged that Adah should superintend the bridal rooms, subject of course to the dictation of Madame and her daughters. ”

“ Adah's manner at once stiffened into the peculiar mixture of firmness and patronage which she deemed it desirable to adopt towards day girls.
"Why? What a question to ask! So that they can be put on the stall, of course."
"Thanks! But we'd rather arrange them for ourselves."
"You can't do that. The boarders always arrange the bazaar."
"But why, when we make the things, should you take them all and arrange them? They're not your work!"
Annie certainly had a most aggravating habit of asking questions. Adah coloured with annoyance. ”

“ Adah's disdainful condescension was more than could be brooked.
"The boarders have always had the stall, and the day girls have humbly helped!" said Gladys witheringly.
"How delightful for us!"
"They're to be the patricians, and we the plebeians!"
"They expect us to dust their very boots!"
"Look here," said Annie, "things are really getting beyond the limit. I vote we get up a deputation, and go to Miss Thompson about this." ”

“ This Maria, whose name is forever upon Adah's tongue, had been Adah's schoolmate back in St. Joseph, Missouri. Their friendship extended through the blissful years of their early wedded life. And at the present time they are as dear to each other as of yore. Adah presupposes that everybody else knows who Maria is, and so everybody is regaled perennially with Adah's loyal tributes to Maria's transcendent virtues. Occasionally Alice (who is without doubt the sweetest-natured creature in all the world) rebels against the example of Maria which Adah continually holds forth. ”

“ Why dost thou hesitate?
Cain.‍She is my sister,330 [225]
Born on the same day, of the same womb; and
She wrung from me, with tears, this promise; and
Rather than see her weep, I would, methinks,
Bear all—and worship aught.
Lucifer.‍Then follow me!
Cain. I will.
Enter Adah.
Adah.‍My brother, I have come for thee;
It is our hour of rest and joy—and we
Have less without thee. Thou hast laboured not
This morn; but I have done thy task: the fruits
Are ripe, and glowing as the light which ripens:
Come away.
Cain.‍Seest thou not? ”

“ Lucifer.‍And thou couldst not
Alone, thou say'st, be happy?
Adah.‍Alone! Oh, my God! [230]
Who could be happy and alone, or good?
To me my solitude seems sin; unless
When I think how soon I shall see my brother,
His brother, and our children, and our parents.
Lucifer. Yet thy God is alone; and is he happy?
Lonely, and good?
Adah.‍He is not so; he hath
The angels and the mortals to make happy,
And thus becomes so in diffusing joy.480
What else can joy be, but the spreading joy? [cc]
Lucifer. ”

“ Yocomb on the back seat, while I took my place by Adah, with Zillah between us. Little Adela and Reuben had become good friends, and she insisted on sitting between him and his father.
As we rolled along the quiet country roads, chatting, laughing, and occasionally singing a snatch of a song, no one would have dreamed that any shadows rested on the party except those which slanted eastward from the trees, which often hung far over our heads. ”

“ Adah Charlton took a great fancy to him and sketched him in many different poses for a book on Chinese children which she was illustrating.
“He will be strong enough to go to school next year,” said Sankwei to her one day. “Later on I intend to put him through an American college.”
“What does your wife think of a Western training for him?” inquired the young girl.
“I have not consulted her about the matter,” he answered. “A woman does not understand such things.”
58“A woman, Mr. Wou,” declared Adah, “understands such things as well as and sometimes better than a man.” ”

“ The fallen angels are suddenly called, and condemned, their destination and punishment unknown. The sisters cling to the rock, the waters mounting higher and higher. Now enter Ark. The scene draws up, and discovers Japhet endeavouring to persuade the Patriarch, with very strong arguments of love and pity, to receive the sisters, or at least Adah, on board. Adah joins in his entreaties, and endeavours to cling to the sides of the vessel. The proud and haughty Aholibamah scorns to pray either to God or man, and anticipates the grave by plunging into the waters. Noah is still inexorable. ”

“ But we find Lamech, “a wild man,” who first introduces polygamy, for ever hereafter to be associated in origin with the race of Cain. One of his two wives was named Adah, a Hebrew term for “ornament,” and is found in the compounds Adaiah, “whom Jehovah adorns,” and Maadiah, “ornament from Jehovah.” ”

“ In the lives of scores of super-women—of Lola Montez, Marie de Chevreuse, Lady Hamilton, Adah Menken, Peg Woffington, Adrienne Lecouvreur, even of Cleopatra—there was somewhere a hiatus,—a "dark spot" that they would never afterward consent to illumine. And such a line of asterisks sheared its way across Marguerite's page at this point. ”

“ Lucifer. And if the higher knowledge quenches love,
What must he be you cannot love when known? [ca]
Since the all-knowing Cherubim love least,
The Seraphs' love can be but ignorance:
That they are not compatible, the doom
Of thy fond parents, for their daring, proves.
Choose betwixt Love and Knowledge—since there is
No other choice: your sire hath chosen already:430
His worship is but fear.
Adah.‍Oh, Cain! choose Love.
Cain. For thee, my Adah, I choose not—It was
Born with me—but I love nought else.
Adah.‍Our parents?
Cain. ”

“ Adah. Yes.
Miriam. At Engeddi Michal
By Saul was apprehended? Merab now
Plotteth against her—she and Doeg?
Adah. Still.
Miriam. And 'twas in Merab's tent you heard, the king
Despairing of to-morrow's battle, comes
Hither to-night to bid me lift the spirit
Of Samuel out of the dead and learn
The issue?
Adah. Doeg said it.
Miriam. And—you hear?——
Many within the army urge for David,
Would cry him king, if Saul were slain?
Adah. O many.
(A knock at the gate. They start up fearful.)
Miriam. Who seeks blind Miriam of Endor's roof,
Under the night and unextinguished storm? ”

“ Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
3 and Basemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth.
4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Basemath bare Reuel;
5 and Oholibamah bare Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, that were born unto him in the land of Canaan.
6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his possessions, which he had gather in the land of Canaan; and went into a land away from his brother Jacob. ”

“ She succeeded so admirably, that when she wore her costume at dress rehearsal, some of the girls almost fell in love with her. To Joyce, as the villain, fell a harder lot. It is difficult to live the part of a villain consistently for weeks. At rehearsals, much coached and chivied by Adah, she would slink and frown and bite her finger-tips and look daggers, and throw sarcasm into her [162] voice, but off the stage she would relapse at once into the comfortable, easygoing, happy-go-lucky ways which usually characterized her personality. She was a sore trial to Adah. ”

“ Cain.‍I said,
'Twere better that he ceased to live, than give
Life to so much of sorrow as he must
Endure, and, harder still, bequeath; but since
That saying jars you, let us only say—
'Twere better that he never had been born.
Adah. Oh, do not say so! Where were then the joys,
The mother's joys of watching, nourishing,
And loving him? Soft! he awakes. Sweet Enoch! ”

“ Now, if any one examines the Hebrew ל he will perceive that it is by no means a rude representation of a human arm, holding a sling with a stone in it. The word Lamech is derived from lam, the hand; and the termination signifies dexterity in shooting or discharging missiles therewith.
It is curious to notice that the remaining names in the passage of Scripture are Celtic: thus Cain is compounded of cend, first, and gein, offspring,—pronounced Kayean, i. e. first begotten. Adah means a fair complexioned, red-haired woman ”

“ His manner changed to sadness. “Yet do I know that always she hath carried in her heart the image of Eli, and that she was greatly touched by his desire to ransom her from what he supposed was cruel slavery. He hath the soul of a saint and the mind of a seer, while thy servant is naught but a soldier. I fear that when I reach Hannathon it will be to find her choice hath already been made and needeth but thine approval.”
Adah frowned. “Thy master’s plans cannot be lightly changed. This is a childless home and its [277] treasure is great. ”

“ Adah stoops down and kisses the body of Abel.
Adah. A dreary, and an early doom, my brother,
Has been thy lot! Of all who mourn for thee,
I alone must not weep. My office is
Henceforth to dry up tears, and not to shed them;
But yet of all who mourn, none mourn like me,
Not only for thyself, but him who slew thee.550
Now, Cain! I will divide thy burden with thee.
Cain. Eastward from Eden will we take our way;
'Tis the most desolate, and suits my steps.
Adah. Lead! thou shalt be my guide, and may our God
Be thine! Now let us carry forth our children. ”

“ He paused, gazing at Isaac with a strange mixture of diffidence and resolution. “We came,” he went on, “thinking of thee as an enemy to be approached with cautious dread. We find thee a friend to whom we are much indebted.”
Nathan nodded, telling briefly his experience just past and joining his thanks to Eli’s, but Isaac waved aside the praise and, dismissing the servant, himself conducted them to the apartments where they were expected. Miriam was nowhere in sight. Adah listened languidly while Eli earnestly pleaded his cause, Nathan, as usual, in admiring silence. ”

“ Weeps when he's named; and Abel lifts his eyes
To Heaven, and Zillah casts hers to the earth,
And sighs a prayer; and Adah looks on me,
And speaks not.
Lucifer.‍And thou?
Cain.‍Thoughts unspeakable
Crowd in my breast to burning, when I hear
Of this almighty Death, who is, it seems,
Inevitable. Could I wrestle with him?
I wrestled with the lion, when a boy,260
In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe.
Lucifer. It has no shape; but will absorb all things
That bear the form of earth-born being.
Cain.‍Ah!
I thought it was a being: who could do
Such evil things to beings save a being?
Lucifer. ”