"Are all of them like this?" asked Nehushta of the woman,
contemptuously.
"Yes, sister," she answered, "fools, every one. Why, of my own husband
I see little; and although, being married, he ranks but low among them,
the man is forever telling me of the faults of our sex, and how they are
a snare set for the feet of the righteous, and given to the leading
of these same righteous astray, especially if they be not their own
husbands. At times I am tempted indeed to prove his words true. Oh! it
would not be difficult for all their high talk; I have learned as much
as that, for Nature is apt to make a mock of those who deny Nature, and
there is no parchment rule that a woman cannot bring to nothing. Yet,
since they mean well, laugh at them and let them be, say I. And now come
into the house, which is good, although did women manage it, it would be
better."
So Nehushta went into that house with the nurse and her husband, and
there for several days dwelt in great comfort. Indeed, there was nothing
that she or the child, or those with them, could want which was not
provided in plenty. Messages reached her even, through the woman, to ask
if she would wish the rooms altered in any way, and when she said that
there was not light enough in that in which the child slept, some of
the elders of the Essenes arrived and pierced a new window in the
wall, working very hard to finish the task before sunset.
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