society of this cenoby too numerous for him, so he retired to a
ruin, hoping to draw himself nearer to God. But even he must have a
living thing by him; and then, his thoughts changing, he fell to
thinking of the day when he would ride out to meet Jesus among the
hills. His happiness was so intense in the prospect that he delighted in
all he saw and heard: in the flight of doves that had just left their
cotes and were flying now across the gorge, and in the soothing chant of
the water rising out of the dusk.

Jesus had told him that the gorge was never without water. The spring
that fed it rose out of the earth as by enchantment. Hazael's voice
interrupted his reveries: would you like, Sir, to visit our house? he
asked, and he threw open the door and showed a great room, common to
all. On either side of it, he said, are cells, six on one side, four on
the other, and into these cells the brethren retire after breaking
bread, and it is in this domed gallery we sit at food. But Jesus has
spoken to thee of these things, for though we do not speak to strangers
of our rule of life, Jesus would not have transgressed in speaking of it
to thee. Joseph asked for news of Banu, and was sorry to hear that he
had been killed and partially eaten by a lion.

The tidings seemed to affect Jesus strangely; he covered his face with
his hands, and Hazael repented having spoken of Banu, guessing that the
hermit's death carried Jesus' thoughts into a past time that he would
shut out for ever from his mind. He atoned, however, for his mistake by
an easy transition which carried their discourse into an explanation of
the dissidence that had arisen among the brethren, and which, he said,
compelled us to come hither. The Essenes are celibates, and it used to
be my duty to go in search of young men whom I might judge to be well
disposed towards God, and to bring them hither with me so that they
might see what our life is, and, discovering themselves to be true
servants of the Lord, adopt a life as delightful and easy to those who
love God truly as it is hard to them whose thoughts are set on the world
and its pleasures. I have travelled through Palestine often in search of
such young men, and many who came with me are still with me. It was in
Nazareth that we met, he said, and he stretched his hand to Jesus. Dost
remember? And without more he pursued his story.

The brother, however, who succeeded me as missionary brought back only
young men who