He was impatient to be about it.

To amuse himself he would visit the sacred places in the vicinity.

The secret, we may be sure, weighed heavily on the woman, but she held her peace.
When he was gone she busied herself in the preparation of things good to eat, applying her utmost skill to the work.

At the approach of day, as signalled by the stars, she filled the basket, selected a jar, and took the road to En-rogel, going out by the Fish Gate which was earliest open, and arriving as we have seen.
Shortly after sunrise, when business at the well was most pressing, and the drawer of water most hurried; when, in fact, half a dozen buckets were in use at the same time, everybody making haste to get away before the cool of the morning melted into the heat of the day, the tenantry of the hill began to appear and move about the doors of their tombs.

Somewhat later they were discernible in groups, of which not a few were children so young that they suggested the holiest relation.