“‘Tell her also,’ he added,” pursued Pillichody, “’that I trust she will fulfil my last injunction.’”

“That I will,” replied Patience.  “Name it.”

“He conjured you to marry me,” replied Pillichody.  “I am sure you will not hesitate to comply with the request.”

“I don’t believe a word of this,” cried Patience.  “Blaize was a great deal too jealous to bequeath me to another.”

“Right, sweetheart, right,” cried the individual in question, pushing open the door.  “This has all been done to try your fidelity.  I am now fully satisfied with your attachment; and am ready to marry you whenever you please.”

“So this was all a trick,” cried Patience, pettishly; “I wish I had known it, I would have retaliated upon you nicely.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Major Pillichody, to lend a helping-hand in such a ridiculous affair.”

“I did it to oblige my friend Blaize,” replied Pillichody.  “It was agreed between us that if you showed any inconstancy, you were to be mine.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Patience.  “I would not advise you to repeat the experiment, Mr. Blaize.”

“I never intend to do so, my angel,” replied the porter.  “I esteem myself the happiest and most fortunate of men.”

“You have great reason to do so,” observed Pillichody.  “I do not despair of supplanting him yet,” he muttered to himself.  “And now, farewell!” he added aloud; “I am only in the way, and besides, I have no particular desire to encounter Mr. Bloundel or his apprentice;” and winking his solitary orb significantly at Patience, he strutted away.  It was well he took that opportunity of departing, for the lovers’ raptures were instantly afterwards interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Bloundel, who was greatly delighted to see the porter, and gave him a hearty welcome.

“Ah, sir, I have had a narrow escape,” cried Blaize, “and never more expected to see you, or my mother, or Patience.  I have had the plague, sir, and a terrible disorder it is.”

“I heard or your seizure from Leonard Holt,” replied Mr. Bloundel.  “But where have you been since you left the hospital at Saint Paul’s?”

“In the country, sir,” rejoined Blaize; “sometimes at one farm-house, and sometimes at another.  I only returned to London yesterday, and met an old friend, whom I begged to go before me, and see that all was right before I ventured, in.”

“We have all been providentially spared,” observed Mr. Bloundel, “and you will find your mother as well as when you last quitted her.  You had better go to her.”

Blaize obeyed, and was received by old Josyna with a scream of delight.  Having embraced him, and sobbed over him, she ran for a bottle of sack, and poured its contents down his throat so hastily as nearly to choke him.  She then spread abundance of eatables before him, and after he had eaten and drank his full, offered him as a treat a little of the plague medicine which she had in reserve.