She continued reading:
“He met his affianced in the evening on her return from Hebron’s rosy hills, whither she had gone to visit her kinswoman, the mother of John, by name Elizabeth. The interview of those two noble women had prepared Mary to tell her betrothed all that troubled and rejoiced her. When her espoused met her privately and for the last time, as he intended, he found her sweetly, serenely singing, as was her wont, a Davidic psalm. He was at first astonished, not knowing how she could be so happy under such stigma as seemed to rest upon her. His patrician blood was roused, and for a moment he was ready to denounce her to the Sanhedrim as an adulteress. Then he looked at her, pitifully, questioningly. It could not be, he meditated, that one so young could be so depraved as to sing God praises, being a criminal. She must be insane! He tore himself from her presence, but instantly returned when she called out: ‘Joseph, God knows all; touch not His anointed.’
“‘Woman!’ he cried ‘explain! explain! Thy seeming sin hangs scorpions over my eyes, and turns my heart to ashes. Thy calmness is a wonderment!’
“Then Mary quietly recited to him the wondrous story of Gabriel’s visit.
“Joseph was pale, and reverently attentive; but still the sadness of his countenance betokened his incredulity.
“Mary, self-possessed, confident in her own integrity, continued: ‘For three months I have been secluded with my kinswoman, Elizabeth. She knows I saw no man, and thou canst testify of the manner of my living since our espousal; but I got words from God, at Hebron. When I first went into my kinswoman’s house.”
“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
“And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
“For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.