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He turned out of the gate and crowding along by the stone wall to pass

in the opposite direction froh

Eue of the little town

He cayptic

façade and an architrave carved with a great stone flower set in an

olive wreath Without was the proseuchae, paved with boulders noorn

sathered around

the reader's stone The Maccabee stopped at the gate and unlacing his

pagan sandals set them outside the threshold

Once over the stone sill with the i him, he felt

the old sanctity envelop hiotten

familiarity Old incense, old litanies, old rites rushed back to hiain from the

farther depths of the dark interior thea ritual The voice was young and low Presently he heard the

responses spoken in a woman's voice, so tender, so soft and so sad

that he sensed instantly the

priest's voice Out of the incense-laden dusk he found old custo back upon hiladly