"We were reading in Tasso. She hath rare parts. Sometimes she renders
Plato and Sophocles to me."
"And thou, our future Rabbi, didst listen?" cried Rachel.
"There is no word of Christianity in these, mother, nor do they
satisfy the soul. Wisely sang Jehudah Halevi, 'Go not near the Grecian
wisdom.'"
"Didst thou sit near her at the mass?" inquired Miriam.
He turned his candid gaze towards her.
"She did not go," he said.
Miriam made a sudden movement to the door.
"Now that thou art safe, Joseph, I have naught further to do here. God
keep thee."
Her bosom heaved. She hurried out.
"Poor Miriam!" sighed Rachel. "She is a loving, trustworthy maiden.
She will not breathe a whisper of thy blasphemies."
Joseph sprang from his feet as if galvanized.
"Not breathe a whisper! But, mother, I shall shout them from the
housetops."
"Hush! hush!" breathed his mother in a frenzy of alarm. "The neighbors
will hear thee."
"It is what I desire."
"Thy father may come in at any moment to know if thou art safe."
"I will go allay his anxiety."
"Nay." She caught him by the mantle. "I will not let thee go. Swear to
me thou wilt spare him thy blasphemies, or he may strike thee dead at
his feet."
"Wouldst have me lie to him? He must know what I have told thee."
"No, no; tell him thou wast shut out, that thou didst remain in
hiding."
"Truth alone is great, mother. I go to bring him the Truth." He tore
his garment from her grasp and rushed without.
She sat on the floor and rocked to and fro in an agony of
apprehension. The leaden hours crept along. No one came, neither son
nor husband. Terrible images of what was passing between them tortured
her. Towards mid-day she rose and began mechanically preparing her
husband's meal. At the precise minute of year-long habit he came. To
her anxious eye his stern face seemed more pallid than usual, but it
revealed nothing. He washed his hands in ritual silence, made the
blessing, and drew chair to table. A hundred times the question
hovered about Rachel's lips, but it was not till near the end of the
meal that she ventured to say, "Our son is back. Hast thou not seen
him?"
"Son? What son? We have no son." He finished his meal.