In no little alarm at seeing her daughter out alone in the street at night, she spoke her name and bid her wait at the door till she could let her in, which she would do immediately; but Janet instantly replied: 

“Nay, mother, come not to the door; come to the little window at the corner, where I can speak quietly till I have told you all.  Open not the door till you have heard my lamentable tale.  I know not even now that I am right to come hither at all.”

In great fear and anxiety the mother cast a loose wrapper about her, and descended quickly to the little storeroom close against the shop, where there was a tiny window which opened direct upon the street.  At this window, but a few paces away, she found her daughter awaiting her, and by the light of the rush candle that she carried she saw that the girl’s face was deadly white.

“Child, child, what ails thee?  Come in and tell me all.  Thou must not stand out there.  I will open the door and fetch thee in.”

“No, mother, no—­not till thou hast heard my tale,” pleaded Janet; “for the sake of the rest thou must be cautious.  Mother, I have been with one who died of the plague at noon today!”

“Mercy on us, child!  How came that about?”

“It was my fellow servant and bed fellow,” answered Janet.  “We were like sisters together, and if ever I ailed aught she tended me as fondly as thou couldst thyself, mother.  Today, when we rose, she complained of headache and a feeling of illness; but we went down and took our breakfast below with the rest.  At least I took mine as usual, though she did but toy with her food.  Then all of a sudden she put her hand to her side and turned ghastly white, and fell off her chair.  A scullery wench set up a cry, ‘The plague! the plague!’ and forthwith they all fled this way and that—­all save me, who could not leave her thus.  I made her swallow some hot cordial which I think they call alexiteric water, and which is said to be very beneficial in cases of the distemper; and she was able to crawl upstairs after a while to her bed once more, where I put her.  I knew not for some hours what was passing in the house, though I heard a great commotion there, and presently there stole in a mincing physician who attends my lady, holding a handkerchief steeped in vinegar to his nose, and smelling like an apothecary’s shop.  He looked at poor Patience, who lay in a stupor, heeding none, and he directed me to uncover her neck for him to see if she had the tokens upon her.  There had been none when I put her to bed again, so that I had hoped it was but a colic or some such affection; but, alas, when I looked at his direction, there 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?”