—II SAMUEL 11:3 I do not think that anything else I ever did pleased David as much as did that message. He did not come to me himself, or send for me, which was all I had asked or expected. But then, David was always one to make a great show even of small things. So now he sent a servant to me to say that whatsoever I desired, that I should be granted, even unto half his kingdom. The man knelt at my feet before the gateway to my own courtyard and spoke David’s words loud and clear, a clanging bell that all must heed. Women came to their own gates to listen, and to look sharp at me. A tiny harp upon a chain hung about the man’s neck. King David’s badge. A little thing of carved and gilded wood, to remind all men of how King David had been raised up from lowliness. I looked at the gilded token, not at the man’s face. “That is good of the king, and generous,” I said. “But it is only a small thing I would ask. Something between a wife and husband only. Thank the king, and tell him I—tell him that his queen asks him to come to her.”
