“Peace, woman,” said Yussef impatiently. “The High Priest and the Elders will but drive him from the city.”
“Nay, nay,” said Halphaï. “They hold him captive. And his disciples are fled. All save Yudas, who led a multitude with swords and staves to find him. And Shimeon-bar-Yonah too is taken, merely because his speech betrayeth him as a Galilæan. How then should I dare stay, who have the ill-hap to be married to his mother’s sister!”
The little mother was moving towards the door. Her husband stopped her. “Whither goest thou?”
“To saddle the ass. I must to Yerushalaim!”
“Thou!”
“Who else? Shall that yellow-veiled woman of Magdala give him comfort?”
“And will he take comfort from thee? Doth he not teach his followers to hate their father and their mother? And doth he not scoff at the womb that bare him?”
“Not he, but his demon,” she answered obstinately, and pressed forward again.
His brow grew black. “But it is the Sabbath!”
“It is my first-born.”