“Have you heard news of this terrible fire?”

Both nurses looked earnestly at him.

“Is it not yet extinguished, my lord?”

“Extinguished? no, nor likely to be, if all we hear be true.  I have not seen it with mine own eyes.  I was at Whitehall all the day, and heard no more than that some houses and churches in the east had been burned.  But they say now that the flames are spreading this way with all the violence of a tempest at sea, and those who have been to see say that it is like a great sea of fire, rushing over everything so that nothing can hinder it.  The Lord Mayor and his aldermen have been down since the morning, striving to do what they can; but, so far as report says, the flames are yet unchecked.  It seems impossible that they should ever reach even to us here; but I am somewhat full of fear.  What would befall my poor young wife if the fire were to threaten this house?”

Dinah looked grave and anxious.  Lady Desborough’s condition was critical, and she could only be moved at considerable risk.  But it seemed impossible that the fire could travel all this distance.  Only the troubled look on the husband’s face would have convinced her that such a thing could be contemplated for a moment even by the faintest-hearted.

“You would not have us move her now, ere the danger approaches?” asked the husband anxiously.

“No, my lord.  To move her tonight would be, I think, certain death,” answered Dinah gravely.  “She has but passed the crisis of a very serious fever, and is weak as a newborn babe.  We will strive all we can to get up her strength, that she may be able for what may come.  But I trust and hope the fire will be extinguished long ere it reaches us.  Oh, surely never was there fire that burned for days and destroyed whole streets and parishes!”

“And oh, my lord, can you tell us if the bridge is safe?” asked Janet clasping her hands together in an agony of uncertainty and fear.  “Have you heard news of the bridge?  Oh, say it is not burned!  They all talk of the east, but what does that mean?  Who can tell me if my father’s house has escaped?”

Lord Desborough was a very kindly man, and the distress of the girl touched him.

“I will go forth and ask news of all who have been thither to see,” he answered.  “Many have gone both by land and water to see the great sight.  I would go likewise, save that I fear to leave my wife.  But, at least, I will seek all the news I can get, and come again to you.”

The master of the house went forth, and the two anxious watchers, after a long look at their patient to satisfy themselves that she was sleeping peacefully, and not likely to wake suddenly, crept silently into an adjoining room, where a large window looking eastward enabled them to see in the sky that strange and terrible glow, which was so bright and fierce as darkness fell that they were appalled in beholding it spreading and brightening in the sky.