see his father, and as plain as if he were before his
eyes in the flesh. But my father isn't dead, so what is the meaning of
this dreaming? he cried one evening; and, starting out of his chair, he
stood listening to the gusts whirling through the hills with so
melancholy a sound that Joseph could not dismiss the thought that the
moment was fateful. His father was dying ... something was befalling, or
it might be that Jesus was at the door asking for him. The door opened,
and he uttered a cry: what is it? Nicodemus, the servant answered, has
come to see you, Sir. And he waited for his order to bid the visitor to
enter or depart.

His master seemed unable to give either order, and stood at gaze till
the servant reminded him that Nicodemus was waiting in the hall; and
then, as if yielding to superior force, Joseph answered he was willing
to receive the visitor, regretting his decision almost at once, while
the servant descended the stairs, and vehemently on seeing Nicodemus,
who entered, the lamplight falling upon him, more brilliantly apparelled
than Joseph had ever seen him. A crimson mantle hung from his shoulders
and a white hand issuing from a purfled sleeve grasped a lance; weapons,
jewelled and engraved, appeared among the folds of his raiment, and he
strode about the room in silence, as if he thought it necessary to give
Joseph a few moments in which to consider his war gear (intended as an
elaborate piece of symbolism). In response to the riddle presented,
Joseph began to wonder if Nicodemus regarded himself rather as a riddle
than as a reality--a riddle that might be propounded again and again, or
if he could not do else than devise gaud and trappings to conceal his
inner emptiness, a dust-heap of which he himself was grown weary. A
great deal of dust-heap there certainly is, Joseph said to himself as
his eyes followed the strange figure prowling along and across the room,
breaking occasionally into speech. But he could not help thinking that
beneath the dust-heap there was something of worth, for when Nicodemus
spoke, he spoke well, and to speak well means to think well, and to
think well, Joseph was prone to conclude, means to act well, if not
always, at least sometimes. But could an apt phrase condone the
accoutrements? He had added a helmet to the rest of his war gear, and
the glint of the lamplight on the brass provoked Joseph to beg of him to
unarm and relate his story, that burdens you more than your armou