"O Lord, I have sought to do according to Thy will," he whispered.

He was thinking of a thing he had long hidden.

Through many years he had no doubt, no qualm; but, since David had gone to Egypt, some spirit of unquiet had worked in him.

He had acted against the prayer of his own wife, lying in her grave--a quiet-faced woman, who had never crossed him, who had never shown a note of passion in all her life, save in one thing concerning David.

Upon it, like some prophetess, she had flamed out.