The conversation then dropped, and Hodges took his leave, promising to return on the morrow, and assuring Mrs. Bloundel that she need be under no further apprehension about her husband.  And so it proved.  The powders removed all the grocer’s feverish symptoms, and when Doctor Hodges made his appearance the next day, he found him dressed, and ready to go downstairs.  Having received the physician’s congratulations on his entire recovery, Mr. Bloundel inquired from him when he thought he might with entire safety open his shop.  Hodges considered for a moment, and then replied, “I do not see any great risk in doing so now, but I would advise you to defer the step for a fortnight.  I would, also, recommend you to take the whole of your family for a short time into the country.  Pure air and change of scene are absolutely necessary after their long confinement.”

“Farmer Wingfield, of Kensal-Green, who sheltered us on our way down to Ashdown Park, will, I am sure, receive you,” observed Leonard.

“If so, you cannot go to a better place,” rejoined the physician.

“I will think of it,” returned Mr. Bloundel.  And leading the way downstairs, he was welcomed by his wife and children with the warmest demonstrations of delight.

“My fears, you perceive, were groundless,” he remarked to Mrs. Bloundel.

“Heaven be praised, they were so!” she rejoined.  “But I entreat you not to go forth again till all danger is at an end.”

“Rest assured I will not,” he answered.  Soon after this, Doctor Hodges took his leave, and had already reached the street-door, when he was arrested by Patience, who inquired with much anxiety whether he knew anything of Blaize.

“Make yourself easy about him, child,” replied the doctor; “I am pretty sure he is safe and sound.  He has had the plague, certainly; but he left the hospital at Saint Paul’s cured.

“O then I shall see him again,” cried Patience, joyfully.  “Poor dear little fellow, it would break my heart to lose him.”

“I will make inquiries about him,” rejoined Hodges, “and if I can find him, will send him home.”  And without waiting to receive the kitchen-maid’s thanks, he departed.

For some days the grocer continued to pursue pretty nearly the same line of conduct that he had adopted during the height of the pestilence.  But he did not neglect to make preparations for resuming his business; and here Leonard was of material assistance to him.  They often spoke of Amabel, and Mr. Bloundel strove, by every argument he was master of, to remove the weight of affliction under which his apprentice laboured.  He so far succeeded that Leonard’s health improved, though he still seemed a prey to secret sorrow.  Things were in this state, when one day a knock was heard at the street-door, and the summons being answered by the grocer’s eldest son, Stephen, he returned with the intelligence that a person was without who