Suddenly she stopped and thought.

It would kill him to be told that his mother and Tirzah were lepers.

He would go through the awful city over on the Hill of Evil Counsel--into each infected tomb he would go without rest, asking for them, and the disease would catch him, and their fate would be his.

She wrung her hands.

What should she do?
Like many a one before her, and many a one since, she derived inspiration, if not wisdom, from her affection, and came to a singular conclusion.
The lepers, she knew, were accustomed of mornings to come down from their sepulchral abodes in the hill, and take a supply of water for the day from the well En-rogel.