way to him," said Gertrude, speaking with the
calmness of one upon whom the expected blow has at last fallen.
"Let what must be done be done quickly. Can we have a nurse? for
methinks Frederick must needs have tendance more skilled than any
we can give him. But let it not be one of those women"--Gertrude
paused and shuddered, as though she knew not how to finish her
sentence.

"Trust me to do all for you that lies in my power," answered
Reuben, in a voice of emotion; "and never feel shut up altogether
from the world; even when the outer door be locked and guarded by a
watchman. I have already hung a bell within our house, and the cord
is tied here upon this nail. In any time of need you have but to
ring it, and be sure that the summons will be speedily answered."

A mist rose before Gertrude's eyes and a lump in her throat. She
pressed Janet's hand, and said to Reuben in a husky voice:

"I have no words today. Some day I will find how to thank you for
all this goodness at such a time."

Before many hours had passed Dinah Morse was installed beside the
sick man. Strong perfumes were burnt in and about his room, and the
terrible tumours which bespoke the poison in his blood were treated
skilfully by poultices and medicaments, applied by one who
thoroughly understood the nature of the disease and the course it
ran.

But from the first it was apparent to a trained eye that the young
man was doomed. There was too much poison in his blood before, and
his constitution was undermined by his reckless and dissolute life.
All that was possible was done to relieve the sufferings and abate
the fever of the patient. One of the best and most devoted of the
doctors who remained courageously at his post during this terrible
time was called in. But he shook his head over the patient, and bid
his parents make up their minds for the worst.

"You have the best nurse in all London," said Dr. Hooker. "If skill
and care could save him, he would be saved. But I fear me the
poison has spread all over. Be cautious how you approach him, for
he breathes forth death to those who are not inoculated. I would I
could do more for you, but our skill avails little before this
dread scourge."

And so, with looks and words of friendly compassion and goodwill,
the doctor took his departure; and before nightfall Frederick was
called to his last account.

Just as the hour of midnight tolled, a sound of wheels was heard in
the street below, a bell r