"Lofts, Norah - How Far To Bethlehem" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lofts Norah)

"It's a shame!" she said, as Michal, finally admitting defeat, fled
back along the path, with no water and her pretty dress spoiled.

"She did try, until she was nothing but skin and bone. We should be
sorry for her!

They'd rounded on her with an astounding ferocity.

"Shame is it? I agree, so it is to hear a girl so young speak in such
a way."

Tm glad your mother didn't hear that," said the woman who intended to
inform Mary's mother at the first possible moment.

"I was sorry for her. Many's the job I found for her, things I could

well have done myself. And when we killed a sheep remembered her."

"And bread she never lacked; my husband saw to that," said the wife of
Hilliel, the Rabbi who was also the baker.

Susannah attempted to take Mary's jar.. "I'll fill it for you. You
run home," she whispered.

Tm going to fill my own jar. I haven't done anything. I only said I
thought it was a shame. And I still do!"

They were all going to say the same things again, but more vehemently,
when an old woman moved and stood near the girls and said to Mary:

"You're young, dearie, and very innocent. You'll learn later that a
woman like that is a threat to every married woman. Men are frail
creatures. Let it go, now, let it go."

That morning the chatter on the return journey was loud and vociferous.
Imagine Anne's daughter, Anne's daughter, saying a thing like that! And
what was the world coming to when any girl so young should not only
rebuke her elders but, when in turn rebuked, be defiant? Did you see
how her eyes flashed? If my daughter ever dares ... Mary knew by the
expression on Anne's face that she had been informed. What she did not
know and never would was that the informant had obtained little
satisfaction from the interview.

"Maybe she spoke out of turn," Anne said, 'and she'll hear about that
from me. But as for sticking up for a harlot, worse nonsense than that
I never heard, even from you, Rebecca! Why, the girl's so innocent she
wouldn't know what Michal's doing nowadays. That wouldn't occur to
you, would it? She thought it was a shame to treat her so because she
wouldn't understand why. My daughter's been properly brought up, let