r head with
approval as she heard that the two girls were to attend the sick
likewise under her care.

"Good girls, brave girls--I like to see courage in old and young
alike. If I were young myself, I vow I would go with you. It's a
fine set of experiences you will have.

"Young woman, I like you. I shall want to hear of you and your
work. Listen to me. This house is my own. I have no one with me
here save the child Dorcas, and I don't think she is of the stuff
that would be afraid; and I take good care of her, so that she is
in no peril. Come back hither to me whenever you can. This house
shall be open to you. You can come hither for rest and food. It is
better than to go to and fro where there be so many young folks as
in the place you come from. Bring the girls with you, too. They be
good, brave maidens, and deserve a place of rest. I have victualled
my house well. I have enough and to spare. I like to hear the news,
and none can know more in these days than a plague nurse.

"Come, children, what say you to this? Go to and fro amongst the
sick; but come home hither and tell me all you have done. What say
you? Against rules for persons to pass from infected houses into
clean ones? Bah! in times like these what can men hope to do by
their rules and regulations? Plague nurses and plague doctors are
under no rules. They must needs go hither and thither wherever they
are called. If I fear not for myself, you need not fear for me. I
shall never die of the plague; I have had my fortune told me too
many times to fear that! I shall never die in my bed--that they all
agree to tell me. Have no fears for me; I have none for myself.

"Make this house your home, you three good women. I am not a good
woman myself, but I know the kind when I see them. They are rare,
but all the more valued for that. Come, I say; you will not find a
better place!"

Dorcas clasped her hands in rapture and looked from one to the
other. The fear of the distemper was small in comparison with the
pleasure of the thought of seeing her sister and aunt and friend at
intervals, now that she was so completely shut up in this lonely
house, and that the servants had all fled never to return.

It was just such an eccentric and capricious whim as was eminently
characteristic of Lady Scrope. She had had nothing but her own
whims to guide her through life, and she indulged them at her
pleasure. She had taken a fancy to Dinah from the first moment. She
knew