Overthrow the Romans!  Joseph repeated to himself, and as soon as his guest had left his house he was brought to a presentiment of the danger he incurred in allowing this man to come to his house:  a young man who walked about extravagantly armed would, sooner or later, find himself haled before Pilate.  Joseph felt that it would be better to refuse to see him if he called at the counting-house:  an excuse could be found easily:  his foreman might say:  Master is away in Jericho.  But when Nicodemus called a few weeks afterwards Joseph was constrained to tell his foreman to tell Nicodemus that he would see him.  The truth was, Joseph was glad of an interruption, for his business was boring him more than it did usually, but he liked to pretend to himself that he could not escape from Nicodemus.

A new opinion of Nicodemus began to shape itself in his mind when Nicodemus said that many and many a year will have to pass before that can be done with success, and the Roman rule is so light that the people feel it not.  It saves us from quarrels among ourselves, and who have quarrelled as bitterly as we have done?  Joseph’s heart softened at this appreciation of the Jewish people, and they began to talk in sympathy for the first time, and it was a pleasure to find themselves in this agreement, that before the Jews could conquer the Romans they would have to conquer themselves.  He is more cautious than I thought for, Joseph muttered as he returned to his camel-drivers, for his guest had departed suddenly without giving any reason for his visitation.  A spy he cannot be, Joseph said to himself.  I stand too well with Pilate to be suspected of schemes of mutiny.  But he will soon come under the notice of Pilate; and Joseph was not surprised when Pilate asked him if he knew an extravagantly dressed young man, Nicodemus by name.  Joseph replied that he did, giving Pilate to understand that Nicodemus was no more than one of the many eccentrics to be found in every city, with a taste for the beauty of engraved swords, and little for the use of these weapons; and Pilate, who seemed to be of the same opinion himself, suddenly asked him if he had ever met in Galilee one named Jesus.  Jesus from Nazareth, Pilate said; and Joseph watched the tall, handsome, pompous Roman, one of those intelligently stupid men of which there are so many about.  He arrived, Pilate continued, in Jerusalem yesterday with a number of Galileans, all talking of the resurrection, and news has just reached me that he had been preaching in the Temple, creating some disturbance, which will, I hope, not be repeated, for disturbances in the Temple lead to disturbances in the streets.  Does your father know this new prophet?  As Joseph was about to answer one of Pilate’s apparitors entered suddenly with papers that demanded the procurator’s attention.  We will talk over this on another occasion, Pilate said as he bent over the papers, and Joseph went out muttering:  so he has come, so he has come to Jerusalem at last.