"Lady, I heard in the synagogue at Emmaus to-day the exclusion that is
laid upon you for seven days. This is a hungry country and no man
should waste food. I shall enter Jerusalem to-morrow by daybreak; we,
my companion and I, have no further use for these. They are Milesian
ducks, fattened on nuts. And this is Falernian--Roman. I pray you,
allow me to leave them with your servant with my obeisances."
Without waiting for her reply the Maccabee passed fowls and skin into
the hands of Momus who stood near.
"Sir," she answered unreadily, with her small hands gripping each
other before her and her eyes veiled, "I thank you. It was not the
least of my anxieties how we should provide ourselves with food under
prohibition and in a country perilous with war. You have made
to-morrow easy for us. I thank you."
"To-morrow; yes," he argued, seizing upon a discussion for an excuse
to remain, "but the next day, and the next five days, what shall you
do?"
"Perchance," she said gravely, "God will send us another stranger of a
generous heart, with more than he needs for himself."
Not likely, indeed, he thought, would such beauty as hers go hungry as
long as there were hearts in the wilderness as impressionable as his.
But the thought of another than himself providing for her did not make
him happy.
There was nothing more to be said, but he did not go. In his face
gathered signs of his interest in her identity.
"Is there more that I can do for you?" he asked. "Have you friends in
Jerusalem? I will bear your messages gladly."
But it was a grateful privilege which she had to refuse with
reluctance. If her husband awaited her in Jerusalem, he must wait,
rather than be informed of the cause of her delay at peril of exposing
his presence in the city. She shook her head.
"There is nothing more," she added. "I thank you."
Dismissal was so evident in her voice that he prepared to depart.
"Shall you move on, then, in the morning?" he asked.
"We have seven days in the wilderness," she explained. "We can not
hasten. It is only a little way to Jerusalem."
"But it is a long road and a weary one for tender feet," he answered;
"and it is a time of warfare and much uncertainty."
She lifted her eyes now with trouble in them.
"Is there any less dangerous way than this?" she asked.
The Maccabee sat down and clasped his hands about his knees. This
grasping at the slightest excuse to remain exasperated the perplexed
Momus, who could not understand the stranger's assurance. But the
Maccabee failed to see him.
"There is," he said to Laodice. "One can journey with you. I am under
no restriction, and the rabbis do not bind you against me. I can
secure you comforts along the way, and give you protection. There in
no such dire need that I enter Jerusalem under seven days."