here were
the black swellings plainly to be seen. Forthwith he fled with
indecent haste, and only stopped to say he would send a nurse and
such remedies as should be needful."

"O my child! and thou wast with her all the time!--thou didst even
touch and handle her?"

"Mother, I could not leave her alone to die. And hardly had the
doctor gone than the fever came upon her, and it was all I could do
to keep her from rushing out of the room in her pain. But it lasted
only a brief while--for the poison must have gotten a sore hold on
her--and just after noon she fell back in mine arms and died.

"O mother, I see her face now--so livid and terrible to look upon!
O mother, mother, shall I too look like that when my turn comes to
die?"

"Hush, hush, my child! God is very merciful. It may be His good
pleasure to spare thee. Thy aunt doth go to and fro amongst the
smitten ones, and she is yet in her wonted health. But ere I call
thy father and ask counsel what we are to do, tell me the rest of
thy tale. Who came to thy relief? and how camest thou hither so
late?"

"I could not come before. I dared not go forth by day, lest I bore
about the seeds of the distemper. The nurse came at three o'clock,
and finding her patient already dead, wrapped her in a sheet, and
said that a coffin would be sent at dark, and that the bearers
would fetch her for burying when the cart came round, and that when
I heard the bell ring I must call to them from the window and let
them in. I asked why the porter should not do that, but she told me
that already every person in the house had fled. My lady had fallen
into an awful fright on hearing that one of her servants was
smitten, and before any knowledge could have been received of it by
the authorities, she had applied for and obtained a clean bill for
herself and her household, and every one of them had fled. The
house was empty, save for me and the poor dead girl; and I was
bidden to stay till her corpse was removed, for the nurse said she
was wanted in a dozen places at once, and that she had too much to
do with the sick to attend upon the dead."

"And thou wert willing to wait?"

"I could not leave her alone. Besides, I feared to walk the streets
till night. The nurse bid me not linger after the body was taken,
for no man knows when the houses will be shut up, so that none can
go forth who have been with an infected person. But it is not so
done yet, and I was free. But I dared not come h