CHAP.  V.

Gone to the study of the law!  Dan said, as he walked up and down the room, glancing often into Joseph’s letter, for it figured to him the Temple with the Scribes meditating on the law, or discussing it with each other while their wives remained at home doing the work.  So do their lives pass over, he said, in the study of the law.  Nothing else is to them of any worth....  My poor boy hopes that I shall forgive him for not returning home after the Feast of the Passover!  Does he suspect that I would prefer him indifferent to the law in Magdala, rather than immersed in it at Jerusalem?  A little surprised and shocked at the licentiousness of his thoughts, he drew them into order with the admission that it is better in every way that a young man should go to Jerusalem early in his life and acquire reverence for the ritual and traditions of his race, else he will drift later on into heresy, or maybe go to live in cities like Tiberias, amongst statues.  But why do I trouble myself like this?  For there was a time before I had a son, and the time is getting very close now when I shall lose him.  And Dan stood swallowed up in the thought of the great gulf into which precarious health would soon pitch him out of sight of Joseph for ever.  It was Rachel coming into the room that awoke him.  She too! he muttered.  He began to fuss about, seeking for writing materials, for he was now intent to send Joseph a letter of recommendation to the High Priest, having already forgotten the gulf that awaited him, in the pleasurable recollection of the courtesy and consideration he received from the most distinguished men the last time he was in Jerusalem—­from Hanan the son of Seth and father-in-law of Kaiaphas:  Kaiaphas was now High Priest, the High Priest of that year; but in truth, Hanan, who had been High Priest before him, retained all the power and importance of the office and was even called the High Priest.  Dan remembered that he had been received with all the homage due to a man of wealth.  He liked his wealth to be acknowledged, for it was part of himself:  he had created it; and it was with pride that he continued his letter to Hanan recommending his son to him, saying that anything that was done to further Joseph’s interests would be a greater favour than any that could be conferred on himself.

The letter was sent off by special messenger and Joseph was enjoined to carry it himself at once to Hanan, which he did, since it was his father’s pleasure that he should do so.  He would have preferred to be allowed to pick his friends from among the people he met casually, but since this was not to be he assumed the necessary reverence and came forward in the proper spirit to meet Hanan, who expressed himself as entirely gratified by Joseph’s presence in Jerusalem and promised to support his election for the Sanhedrin.  But if the councillors reject me?  For you see I am still a young man.  The innocency of Joseph’s