ld
hasten by with vinegar-steeped cloths held closely over their
faces; and later on some bearer with a cart or barrow would be sent
to carry away the corpse and fling it into the nearest pit, of
which there was now an ever-increasing number in the various
parishes.

It will well be understood that in such days as these the need for
nurses for the sick was terribly great. The majority of those
so-called nurses were women of the lowest class, whose motive was
personal gain, not a loving desire to mitigate the sufferings of
the stricken.

Whether all the dismal tales told by the miserable beings shut up
in their houses, and left to the mercy of watchmen and nurses, were
true may be well open to doubt. Many poor creatures became half
demented by terror, and scarcely knew what they said. But enough
was from time to time substantiated to prove how very terrible were
the scenes which sometimes went on within these sealed abodes; and
more than once some careless watchman or thieving and neglectful
nurse had been whipped through the streets for misdemeanours
brought home to them by the authorities.

But now things were growing too pressing for individual cases to
attract much attention. Do as men would to cope with the evil, the
spread of the fell disease was something terrible to witness. Up
till quite recently, the cases in the southern and eastern parishes
and within the city walls had been few as compared with those in
the north and west; but now the scourge seemed to have fallen upon
the city itself, and the resources of the authorities were taxed to
the uttermost.

The Harmer family welcomed back Dinah with joy; but when they heard
of Gertrude's resolve, they looked grave and awed. Then Janet
stepped forward suddenly, and addressing her father, said:

"Dear father, what Gertrude has desired for herself is nothing less
than what I myself have often wished. Let me go forth also to tend
the sick. If our neighbour can dare to let his only child do this
thing, surely thou wilt spare me. Every day brings terrible tales
of the woe and the pressing need of hundreds and thousands around
us. Let me go, too. I am like to be safer than many, seeing that I
may already have been touched by the distemper, though I knew it
not."

The example of his neighbour was not without effect upon the worthy
citizen. Moreover, it seemed to him that those who went about their
daily duties, and shrank not from contact with the sick when it w