"My heart is burdened with a desire to meet this unafraid yet tender and wise man thou dost talk of. I would see Jesus."
"It shall be even so. To our home shall he be bidden. When thou hearest the silver trumpets blowing in the New Year, remember this is thy brother's promise, and may joy come to thee with the coming of the Galilean."
"Thou dost give me joy on this New Year's Eve. A kiss I have for thee—for pleasant dreams."
"Now am I well paid," laughed Lazarus when his sister kissed him.
"The blessing of God on thee, my brother. Good night."
CHAPTER XI
ON WITH THE DANCE
While Lazarus and Mary were searching the house with their long-handled lamps that not a speck of leaven should remain to defile the Passover, a different scene was being enacted in the Palace of Herod for Pilate and his guests. Earlier in the evening the Procurator had entered his luxurious apartment and casting aside his purple robe had exclaimed, "The wrath of Jove on Jerusalem. Save for its size it is not better than a tomb across Kedron!"
"A tomb?" one of his guests repeated questioningly. "Methinks it is a mountain of bees swarming and buzzing. Never have I seen such crowds."
"People, yea, people. But what are people if they be Jews? The tombs lack not a plentiful filling of bones and creeping things."