“Mother, I could not leave her alone to die.  And hardly had the doctor gone than the fever came upon her, and it was all I could do to keep her from rushing out of the room in her pain.  But it lasted only a brief while—­for the poison must have gotten a sore hold on her—­and just after noon she fell back in mine arms and died.

“O mother, I see her face now—­so livid and terrible to look upon!  O mother, mother, shall I too look like that when my turn comes to die?”

“Hush, hush, my child!  God is very merciful.  It may be His good pleasure to spare thee.  Thy aunt doth go to and fro amongst the smitten ones, and she is yet in her wonted health.  But ere I call thy father and ask counsel what we are to do, tell me the rest of thy tale.  Who came to thy relief? and how camest thou hither so late?”

“I could not come before.  I dared not go forth by day, lest I bore about the seeds of the distemper.  The nurse came at three o’clock, and finding her patient already dead, wrapped her in a sheet, and said that a coffin would be sent at dark, and that the bearers would fetch her for burying when the cart came round, and that when I heard the bell ring I must call to them from the window and let them in.  I asked why the porter should not do that, but she told me that already every person in the house had fled.  My lady had fallen into an awful fright on hearing that one of her servants was smitten, and before any knowledge could have been received of it by the authorities, she had applied for and obtained a clean bill for herself and her household, and every one of them had fled.  The house was empty, save for me and the poor dead girl; and I was bidden to stay till her corpse was removed, for the nurse said she was wanted in a dozen places at once, and that she had too much to do with the sick to attend upon the dead.”

“And thou wert willing to wait?”

“I could not leave her alone.  Besides, I feared to walk the streets till night.  The nurse bid me not linger after the body was taken, for no man knows when the houses will be shut up, so that none can go forth who have been with an infected person.  But it is not so done yet, and I was free.  But I dared not come home amongst you all to bring, perhaps, death with me.  I waited in the house till the men and the cart came, and they brought a coffin and took poor Patience away.  They told me then that soon there would be no more coffins, and that they would have to bury without them.”

Janet paused and shuddered strongly.

“O mother, mother, mother!” she wailed, “what shall I do?  What will become of me?  Shall I have to die in the streets, or to go to the pest house?  Oh, why do such terrible things befall us?”

The mother was weeping now, but the next moment she felt the touch of her husband’s hand upon her shoulder, and his voice said in its quiet and authoritative way: 

“What means all this coil and to do?  Why does the child speak thus?  Tell me all; I must hear the tale.