ainst the day when it shall make my wedding veil fragrant as a field
of lilies. When I am spoken for I will fill my chest with wedding
garments as hath Martha."

"And if thou art spoken for by the King of the Jews, like a queen must
thou be decked. Glad am I, my sister, that thou art fair. Aye, just
now will I deck thee in my wedding garments and see thee shine," and
Martha took from the chest a golden scarf, a spangled veil and some
strings of beads. With the gold and spangled cloth she draped Mary.
The jeweled girdle was coiled about her head like a crown and her
flowing hair was hung with strands of shining beads.

When Martha had finished, Lazarus, who stood by looking on with
interest, said, "Thou lackest a scepter, Mary. Take thou the sword,"
and he rested it against her knee and stood back with Martha to get the
effect.

"God of our fathers!" Martha exclaimed with smiling face. "Among all
the daughters of Jerusalem none is more fair than our Mary."

"But I like it not. Behold! A sword hath been given me and he that
hath been called to bring the Kingdom doth ever teach those are blessed
who make not war, but who bring peace. Take thou the sword. It doth
savor of Rome, of battle-fields, cries of pain, black wings over far
fields of death and little children crying for fathers who will come no
more. Take thou the sword."

"Not even in the raiment of a queen canst thou forget the words of the
Master. Thou art queer, Mary," Lazarus said as he took the sword.

"Nor do I like the heavy weight of jewels on my brow nor pearls hanging
down my hair. Aye, Lazarus, hath not thy lips just passed the word
that the poor breathe curses against Herod because that of their
nakedness he doth wear jewels, of their starvation doth he fatten with
rich food, of their misery doth come his ease even as these things come
to Pilate and to Caesar? Should one woman wear on her brow that for
which the peasants of Galilee suffer and sweat and toil? Nay, nay.
Not such a Kingdom preacheth the Master."

"Thou and the Master doth love peace. So did our father David. Yet
was it not the will of God that he lift the sword most mightily? How
can a Kingdom come without the sword?"

"I know not the manner of its coming, my brother. But the Kingdom the
Master doth preach cometh first within the heart of man. And if the
members of a man's life lift up the sword of disagreement between
themselves, will the Kingdom be destroyed a