Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/243

Rh "And he answered : 'Always; and with prayer she hath achieved many things. When Joseph found that she was with child, he would have given her a bill of divorcement, and all her friends did scoff at her. "Wherefore didst thou marry Joseph?" inquired they of her. "To be the father of thy child?"

"'And, greatly troubled, Joseph did entreat her to advertise him whence was this child; and, loath to hold her up to public scorn, he said: "I will put thee privily away, if thou wilt tell me; I will neither stone thee, nor give thee a writing of divorcement; I will be as though I were the father of the child."

"'But she could do naught but cry: "I know not." And none would credit her, and all her kindred came about her murmuring and saying: "Why hath this reproach of the enemy come upon us in this day, and on the lineage of the House of David, that a virgin should be found with child?"

"'But Mary could only weep and say, "I know not, I know not"; and she shut herself up and denied herself to all, for the reviling of her enemies overwhelmed her. But, in her heart, she knew that the child was of the Lord; for the angel Gabriel had appeared to her, the same who had appeared also to Elisabeth her cousin before the birth of John the Baptist; and the two women talked much together of these things and were filled with the Holy Spirit, which is from the beginning given to all whose hearts are gentle and as little children's. But none could understand this thing, or believe that it was the doing of the Lord. For all that, Mary prayed on in patience that, even if all the world would not