"What meanest thou, Martha?"
"No more than I did say. Did not Joel attend a feast where Jesus had been bidden? And lo, as they sat at meat did not a woman make her way to the feet of Jesus and there sit—aye, a woman of the town? And did he not look into her eyes when she was spoken harshly to, even as he looketh into thine? And did he not say comforting words to her and excuse her, saying she had loved much—aye, loved even to her own damnation?"
"For this alone could I love Jesus," Mary answered, "even this—he pities womankind, nor thrusts them beyond the circle of his kindness because they have been weak. Not of evil cometh woman's confidence, which, betrayed, maketh her an outcast. But of goodness cometh confidence."
"Thy speech soundeth well, but it stirreth not mercy in my heart for she who sins against the Law."
"Hard and often cruel is the Law. Dost thou ever think, Martha, that in the sight of God, to sin against love may be a greater sin than to sin against the Law?"
"I know not the meaning of thy question. Dost think I am a Rabbi?"
"Thou hast a right to think on these things even if thou art not a
Rabbi."
"Nay—no right have I, for doth not the Law say a woman shall not be taught?"
"What the Law denieth, the Master doth allow. Doth he not ever bid me sit at his feet and learn?"
"Far be it from me," Martha said, "to say aught against the teachings of the Master, yet a woman's place is not with Rabbis. To serve is her lot."