At that moment a shuffling of feet sent him back to his seat again, and he put food into his mouth just in time to escape suspicion of eavesdropping.  I thought, Master, that thy supper was finished, and that I might take away the plates.  I’ve hardly begun my supper, Esora.  Your voices in the kitchen prevented me from eating.  We are sorry for that, Master, she replied.  Make no excuses, Esora.  I said it was the voices in the kitchen that disturbed me, but in truth it was my own thoughts, for I have heard many things to-day in Jerusalem.  Esora’s face brightened and she said to herself:  my words to him are coming true.  Sit here, Esora, and I’ll tell thee what I’ve heard to-day.  And while Matred listened to Jesus in the kitchen Esora heard from Joseph that the camel-drivers had been talking of the resurrection in the yard behind the counting-house, and that his clerk’s advice to him had been to attend the Sanhedrin, and make plain that his reason for going to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus was because he did not wish a desecration of the Sabbath.  But he had only met a show of dark faces, and left the meeting in company with Nicodemus.  Esora, is our danger as great as this young man says it is?  Master, I have always told thee that as soon as Jesus leaves Judea he will be safe from violence, from death, and we shall be safe too, but not till then.  But how are we to persuade him to leave Judea, Esora?  Thou must try, Master, to persuade him, there is no other way.  He is talking now with Matred in the kitchen.  Ask him to come here, and thou’lt see, Esora, the sad face that uplifts when I speak to him of Caesarea.  I’ll speak for thee, Master, she answered, and going to the door she called Jesus to them, and when he stood before them she said:  have I not proved a good physician to thee?  To-day thy back gives thee no trouble.  Only aching a bit, he answered, from stooping, but that will pass away.  And my balsam having cured thy feet and hands is it not right that I should take a pride in thee?  And, smiling, Jesus answered:  had I voice enough I would call the virtue of thy balsam all over the world.  My balsam has done well with thee, but a change is needed to restore thee to thyself, and seeing a cloud come into his face, she continued:  we weren’t talking of sending thee to Caesarea, for it is of little use to send a man in search of health whither he is not minded to go.  Our talk was not of Caesarea.  But of what city then?  Jesus asked, and Esora began to speak of Alexandria, and Joseph, thinking that she repeated indifferently all that she had heard of that city from him, interrupted her and began to discourse about the several schools of philosophy and his eagerness to hear Jesus among the sages.  But why should thy philosophers listen to me?  Jesus asked.  Because thou’rt wise.  No man, he replied, is wise but he who would learn, and none is foolish but he who would teach.  If there are learners there must be teachers, Joseph said, and he awaited Jesus’ answer eagerly, but Esora, fearing their project would be lost sight of in argument, broke in, saying:  neither teaching nor learning avails, but thy health, Jesus, and to-morrow a caravan starts for Egypt, and we would know if thou’lt join it, for one whom thou knowest goes with it, a friend, one Nicodemus, a disciple, whose love for thee is equal to my master’s.