So the wife of Rabbi Jairus heard as Jesus went out of the door.

They remained His adherents until near the days of the persecution.

CHAPTER XVI

About the same time things began to go ill with Levi, the tax-gatherer, who lived on the road to Tiberias.  One morning his fellow-residents prepared a discordant serenade for him.  They pointed out to Levi with animation, from the roof of his house, in what honour he was held, by means of the rattling of trays and clashing of pans, since he had accepted service with the heathen as toll-keeper and demanded money even on the Sabbath.

The lean tax-gatherer sat in a corner of his room and saw the dust fly from the ceiling, which seemed to shake beneath the clatter.  He saw, too, how the morning sun shining in at the window threw a band of light across the room, in which danced particles of dust like little stars.  He listened, and saw, and was silent.  When they had had enough of dancing on the roof they jumped to the ground, made grimaces at the window, and departed.

A little, bustling woman came out of the next room, stole up to the man, and said:  “Levi, it serves you right!”

“Yes, I know, Judith,” he answered, and stood up.  He was so tall that he had to bend his head in order not to strike it against the ceiling.  His beard hung down in thin strands; it was not yet grey, despite his pale, tired face.

“They will stone you, Levi, if you continue to serve the Romans,” exclaimed the woman.

“They hated me even when I did not serve the Romans,” said the man.  “Since that Feast of Tabernacles at Tiberias when I said that Mammon and desire of luxury had estranged the God of Abraham from the chosen people, and subjected them to Jupiter, they have hated me.”

“But you yourself follow Mammon,” she returned.

“Because since they hate me I must create a power for myself which will support me, if all are against me.  It is the power with which the contemned man conquers his bitterest enemies.  You don’t understand me?  Look there!” He bent down in a dark corner of the chamber, lifted an old cloth, and displayed to view a stone vessel like a mortar.  “Real Romans,” he said, grinning; “soon a small army of them.  And directly it is big enough, the neighbours won’t climb on to the roof and sing praises to Levi with pots and pans, but with harps and cymbals.”

“Levi, shall I tell you what you are?” exclaimed the woman, the muscles of her red face working.

“I am a publican, as I well know,” he returned calmly, carefully covering his money chest with the cloth.  “A despised publican who takes money from his own people to give to the stranger, who demands toll-money of the Jews although they themselves made the roads.  Such a one am I, my Judith!  And why did I become a Roman publican?  Because I wished to gain money so as to support myself among those who hate me.”