“You accepted the jewelry without question, and wore it at once. I don’t know why I dared to offer it, but you wore it. You decided then. At the well. Before you knew my name or the name of my master.”

“I knew who you were.”

This made him stand upright and look at her in real surprise.

“No, no, I simply figured it out. From what you said after I told you who I was. That you had been led by God to the house of your master’s brother. I know the stewards of all my father’s brothers. If a new one had been chosen, I would have known. So it had to be my grandfather, Nahor, and his only living brother is Abraham. I doubted he was looking for a bride for himself, but even if he had been, I knew I would say yes.”

Eliezer looked at her with puzzlement. “You could have anyone, I would think.”

“I said no to Ezbaal,” she said. She was a little ashamed of bragging about it, but she didn’t want him to think she hadn’t had suitors.

He looked suitably impressed. “I’m not surprised that he asked. I’m quite surprised your father said no.”

“My father said yes. Or would have. But I said no. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the journey, if you want to hear it. I guess stories of the doings at Bethuel’s camp don’t get told far and wide like the stories of Abraham.”

“My master is very old. Few people come to tell him stories now. He falls asleep often, so it’s hard for him to follow a tale.”

Silence again.

“Are you going to tell me, or not?” asked Eliezer.

“Tell you what?”

“Why you said yes so quickly. Why you wore the jewelry without waiting to see what your father would say.”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you already? Because I was also guided by the Lord.”

“You took no journey.”

“Didn’t I? I passed through the trackless wilderness of a proposal from a great man who happens to worship Ba’al, but whose offer was not to be refused. How do you think I emerged on the other side, unless God helped me? And then, for the past year, I have waited for God to show me why he spared me from an idolatrous house. Finally, this afternoon, I prayed to the Lord that it was time to bring me a true husband. If I was going to get one. The moment I finished praying, the thought came into my mind that I should go fetch water.”

“But you fetch water often.”

“Usually I take a turn every day or so.”

“So it wasn’t unusual for you to think of that.”