tell me, though I do not know why thou shouldst consult me again.  I came to tell thee that one of thy camel-drivers has come with the news that the departure of the caravan for Egypt has been advanced by two days.  But if thou’rt thinking of Egypt no longer I may send him away.  Tell him to return to the counting-house, and that there is no order for to-day, Joseph replied.  You will settle the journey between you, Esora said, turning back on her way to the kitchen to speak once more.  She would have me go, Jesus said.  Put that thought out of thy mind, Joseph replied quickly, for it is not a true thought.  Thou shouldst have guessed better; it is well that thou goest, but we must find the country and the city that is agreeable to thee, and that will be discovered in our talk in the next few days, to which Jesus answered nothing; and at the end of the next few days, though much had been said, it seemed to Joseph that Jesus’ departure was as far away as ever.  It has become, he said to Esora, a little dim.  I know nothing, he continued, of Jesus’ mind.

On these words he went to his counting-house distracted and sad, expecting to hear from his clerk that the story of Jesus’ resurrection was beginning to be forgotten in Jerusalem, but the clerk knew nothing more, and was eager to speak on another matter.  Pilate had sent soldiers to prevent a multitude from assembling at the holy mountain, Gerezim, for the purpose of searching for some sacred vessels hidden there by Moses, so it was said.  Many had been slain in the riot, and the Samaritans had made representations to Vitellius, artfully worded, the clerk said, and dangerous to Pilate, for Vitellius had a friend whom he would like to put in Pilate’s place.  Joseph sat thinking that it was not at all unlikely he was about to lose his friend and protector, and the clerk, seeing his master troubled, dropped in the words:  nothing has been settled yet.  Joseph gave no heed, and a few days afterwards a messenger came from the Praetorium to tell Joseph that Pilate wished to see him.  We shall not meet again, Joseph, unless you come to Rome, and you must come quickly to see me there, for my health is declining.  We have been friends, such friends as may rarely consist with Roman and Hebrew, he said, and the words stirred up a great grief in Joseph’s heart, and when he returned that evening to his house he was overcome by the evil tidings, but he did not convey them to Esora that evening, nor the next day, nor the day afterwards, and they becoming such a great torment in his heart he did not care to go to his counting-house, but remained waiting in his own rooms, or walking in the garden, startled by every noise and by every shadow.