shall any
one get a letter safely delivered to her in time? It may be that if
we tarry the fever will have swept him off. It is fever of the mind
rather than the body, and it is hard to minister to the mind
diseased, without the one healing medicine."

"Hold! I have a plan," cried Joseph, whose wits were sharpened by
the pressing nature of the business in hand; "listen, and I will
expound it. Tomorrow morning I will sally forth with a barrow laden
with eggs, vegetables, and fruit; and I will enter the city as one
of the country folks for the market, with whom none interfere at
the barriers. I will e'en sell my goods to whoever will buy them,
and at the bottom of the barrow thou shalt put one of thy cotton
gowns and market aprons, Aunt Mary. Then will I go to Mistress
Gertrude and tell her all. I shall learn of the welfare of those at
home, and will come back with her at my side. The watch will but
take her for a market woman, and we shall both pass unchecked and
unhindered. By noon tomorrow Gertrude shall be here!

"Nay, hinder me not, good aunt. We must all adventure ourselves
somewhat in this dire distress and peril. Sure, if Providence kept
me safe in yon pest house yesterday, I need not fear to return to
the city upon an errand of mercy such as may save my brother's
life!"

CHAPTER XIII. HAPPY MEETINGS.

"Reuben found! Reuben alive! O Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!" and Dorcas
burst into tears of joy and relief, and sobbed aloud upon her
brother's neck.

Joseph had brought his news straight to Dorcas, knowing that she at
least would be certainly found within Lady Scrope's house. He was
secretly afraid to go home first, lest the fatal red cross upon the
door should tell its tale of woe, or lest the whole house itself
should be shut up and desolate, like the majority of the houses he
had passed in the forlorn city that morning. He felt, however, an
almost superstitious confidence that Lady Scrope's house would defy
the infection. He was decidedly of the opinion that that
redoubtable dame was a witch, and that she had charms which kept
the plague at bay. He therefore first sought out the sister with
whom he felt certain he could obtain speech; and she had drawn him
into a little parlour hard by the street door, in great
astonishment at seeing him there, and fearful at first (as folks
had grown to be of late) that he was the bearer of evil tidings.

The joy and relief were therefore so great that she could not