"Are you going on a journey?"

"I am about to take Amabel to Ashdown Park, in Berkshire, to-morrow
morning," replied Leonard. "She is dangerously ill."

"Of the plague?" asked Nizza, anxiously.

"Of a yet worse disorder," replied Leonard, heaving a deep sigh--"of a
broken heart."

"Alas! I pity her from my soul!" replied Nizza, in a tone of the deepest
commiseration. "Does her mother go with her?"

"No," replied Leonard, "I alone shall attend her. She will be placed
under the care of a near female relative at Ashdown."

"Would it not be better,--would it not be safer, if she is in the
precarious state you describe, that some one of her own sex should
accompany her?" said Nizza.

"I should greatly prefer it," rejoined Leonard, "and so I am sure would
Amabel. But where is such a person to be found?"

"I will go with you, if you desire it," replied Nizza, "and will watch
over her, and tend her as a sister."

"Are you equal to the journey?" inquired Leonard, somewhat doubtfully.

"Fully," replied Nizza. "I am entirely recovered, and able to undergo
far more fatigues than an invalid like Amabel."

"It will relieve me from a world of anxiety if this can be
accomplished," rejoined Leonard. "I will consult Doctor Hodges on the
subject on his return."

"What do you desire to consult me about?" cried the physician, who had
entered the room unobserved at this juncture.

The apprentice stated Nizza's proposal to him.

"I entirely approve of the plan," observed the doctor; "it will obviate
many difficulties. I have just received a message from Mr. Bloundel, by
Dallison, the porter, to say he intends sending Blaize with you. I will
therefore provide pillions for the horses, so that the whole party can
be accommodated."

He then sat down and wrote out minute instructions for Amabel's
treatment, and delivering the paper to Leonard, desired him to give it
to the housekeeper at Ashdown Park.

"Heaven only knows what the result of all this may be!" he exclaimed.
"But nothing must be neglected."

Leonard promised that his advice should be scrupulously attended to; and
the discourse then turning to Nizza's father, she expressed the utmost
anxiety to see him before she set out.

Hodges readily assented. "Your father has been discharged as cured from
the pest-house," he said, "and is lodged at a cottage, kept by my old
nurse, Dame Lucas, just without the walls, near Moorgate. I will send
for him."

"On no account," r