These prognostications had been frequent since the appearance in the sky of another comet, which had been seen on all clear nights of late.  It had considerably alarmed the citizens, who remembered the comet of the previous year, and the terrible visitation which had followed.  This one was not very like the former; it was far more bright, and burning, and red, and its motion appeared more rapid in the sky.  The soothsayers and astrologers, of which there were still plenty left, all averred that it bespoke some fresh calamity hanging over the city, and for a while there was considerable alarm in many minds, and some families actually left London, fearful that the plague would again break out there; but by this time the panic had well nigh died down.  The comet ceased to be seen in the sky, and even the mournful words of the fortune tellers did not attract the notice they had done at first.  The summer was waning, and no sickness had appeared; and of any other kind of calamity the people did not appear to dream.

The Master Builder had gone in as usual to the next house to have a talk with his neighbour.  But tonight he looked in vain for Dinah.

“She and Janet have both been summoned to a fine lady who is sick in a grand house nigh to St. Paul’s.  Dr. Hooker fetched them thither this morning.  They will be well paid for their work, he says.  The lady has sickened of a fever, and some of her household took fright lest it should be the plague, albeit the symptoms are quite different.  So he must needs take both Dinah and Janet with him, that she might be rightly served and tended.  Tomorrow Joseph shall go and ask news of her, and get speech with Janet if he can, and learn how it fares with her.  I confess I am glad, when she goes to fine houses, that Dinah should be there also.  Janet is a pretty creature, and those young gallants think of nothing but to amuse themselves by turning girls’ heads, be they ever so humble.

“Ah me! ah me! there is a vast deal of wickedness in the world!  I cannot wonder that men foretell some fresh calamity upon this city.  I am sure some of the things we hear and see—­well, well, well, we must not judge others.  It is enough that judgment and vengeance are the Lord’s.”

Rachel stopped short because she saw the look of pain which always came into the Master Builder’s face when he thought of his profligate young son, cut off in the prime of his youthful manhood, and that without any assurance on the part of those about him that he had repented of the error of his ways.  The carelessness and wickedness of the young men of the city were always a sore subject, and he still winced when the pranks of the Scourers were commented upon by his neighbours.

“It is my Lady Desborough who has fallen ill,” concluded Rachel, anxious to turn the subject.  “Methinks you had some dealings with her lord not such very long time since.  The name fell familiarly upon my ears.”