portant.

The Council of State gathered from Layelah's report that we had fled
to Magones for the especial purpose of gaining the most blessed of
deaths; that she pursued us in the interest of the state; and that we
on her arrival had generously surrendered our own selfish desires, and
had at once returned.

We learned that much gratification was felt by the council, and also
expressed, at Layelah's account and at our action.

First, at our eager love of death, which was so natural in their
eyes; secondly, at the skill which we had shown in selecting Magones;
and finally, at our generosity in giving up so readily the blessed
prospect of exile and want and death, so as to come back to the
amir. Had we been Kosekin our acts would have been natural enough;
but, being foreigners, it was considered more admirable in us, and it
seemed to show that we were equal to the Kosekin themselves. It was
felt, however, that in our eager rush after death we had been somewhat
selfish; but as this probably arose from our ignorance of the law, it
might be overlooked. On the whole it was decided that we ought to be
rewarded, and that, too, with the greatest benefits that the Kosekin
could bestow. What these benefits were the Kohen Gadol could not say;
and thus we were left, as before, in the greatest possible anxiety. We
still dreaded the worst. The highest honors of these men might well
awaken apprehension; for they thought that the chief blessings were
poverty and darkness and death.

Layelah next came to see me. She was as amiable as ever, and showed no
resentment at all. She gave me an account of what had happened at the
Council of State, which was the same as what I had heard from the
Kohen Gadol.

I asked her why she had made such a report of us.

"To conciliate their good-will," said Layelah. "For if they thought
that you had really fled from death from a love of life, they would
have felt such contempt for you that serious harm might have
happened."

"Yes," said I; "but among the Kosekin what you call harm would
probably have been just what I want. I should like to be viewed with
contempt, and considered unworthy of death and the Mista Kosek, and
other such honors."

"Oh yes," said Layelah; "but that doesn't follow; for you see the
paupers love death so intensely that they long to bestow it on all;
and if they knew that you were afraid of it, they would be tempted to
bestow it upon you immediately, just to show you how de