"Feel for thyself," and taking her hand he made it stroke her long hair.
"Let mine eyes bear me witness," and turning toward the still pool she ran fleet footed, and dropped on her hands and knees beside it. So long and carefully she bent above the water, Jael came beside her and looked in to see there her mirrored face. "Look, Jael," she whispered. "Seest thou a face?"
"Yea, thy face, clean and whole."
"Nay—not mine. There is one altogether fair and more beautiful than tongue can tell. It seemeth to look out from mine as though it had always been there, yet it is not mine, but another. My soul telleth me this mighty Jesus hath taken possession of thy Sara."
A moment they tarried by the pool of the Jordan. Then Sara sprang up exclaiming, "Jael—I love thee! I love thee! But there is another I love with a strong love that tongue can not speak. Come! Let us hasten with winged feet to Jesus of Nazareth. Before his face would I shout the joy of my salvation!"
CHAPTER XXI
ANOTHER PASSOVER
The year between the Passover feasts of 32 and 33 A. D. had been a busy and eventful one in the Bethany household where Jesus made his home during much of the time of his Judean teaching. Out of his frequent visits and the thoughtful ministrations of Mary and Martha had come an intimacy that had cemented the bands of love between them, while Lazarus and the young Rabbi, close as brothers, studied the Law and the Scriptures together.
Through the year Martha and Joel had been making preparations for their marriage which was to take place soon after the Passover and in this wedding Jesus was deeply interested. But the one great event of the year had been the death and resurrection of Lazarus. This strange event had not only been the miracle talk of the home, but it had been widely discussed in Jerusalem.
Passover guests were beginning to throng the highways leading to Jerusalem, and the home at Bethany was set in order for the coming of Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus of Galilee, who were again to be guests of Lazarus. Martha and Joel sat in the big window talking over their own affairs while Mary and Lazarus stood by the table looking over a scroll, all four meantime, listening for the approach of their guests.