A careful diet, regular hours, and freedom from needless fears would, he was assured, do much towards maintaining them all in health, and he concluded his address by kneeling down in the midst of his sons and daughters, and commending them all most fervently to the protection of Heaven, praying for grace to do their duty towards all about them, and for leading and guidance that they ran not into needless peril, but were directed in all things by the Spirit of God.

They had hardly risen from their knees before a knock at the door announced the arrival of a visitor, and Joseph running to answer the summons—­since there was now no servant in the house—­came back almost immediately ushering in the Master Builder, whose face wore a very troubled look.

“Heaven guard us all!  I think my wife will go distraught with the terror of this visitation, if it goes on much longer.  What is a man to do for the best?  She raves at me sometimes like a maniac for not having taken her away ere the scourge spread as it is doing now.  But when I tell her that if she is bent upon it she must e’en go now, she cries out that nothing would induce her to set her foot outside the house.  She sits with the curtains and shutters fast closed, and a fire of spices on the hearth, till one is fairly stifled, and will touch nothing that is not well-nigh soaked in vinegar.  And each time that Frederick comes in with some fresh tale, she is like to swoon with fear, and every time she vows that it is the pestilence attacking her, and is like to die from sheer fright.  What is a man to do with such a wife and such a son?”

“Surely Frederick will cease to repeat tales of horror when he sees they so alarm his mother,” said Rachel; but the Master Builder shook his head with an air of more than doubt.

“It seems his delight to torment her with terror; and she appears almost equally eager to hear all, though it almost scares her out of her senses.  As for Gertrude, the child is pining like a caged bird shut up in the house and not suffered to stir into the fresh air.  I am fair beset to know what to do for them.  Nothing will convince Madam but that there be dead carts at every street corner, and that the child will bring home death with her every time she stirs out.  Yet Frederick comes to and fro, and she admits him to her presence (though she holds a handkerchief steeped in vinegar to her nose the while), and she gets no harm from him.”

“Poor child!” said Rachel, thinking of Gertrude, whom once she had known so well, running to and fro in the house almost like one of her own.  “Would that we could do somewhat for her.  But I fear me her mother would not suffer her to visit us, especially since poor Janet came home last night from a plague-stricken house.”

Reuben’s eyes had brightened suddenly at his mother’s words, but the gleam died out again, and he remained quite silent whilst the story of Janet’s appearance at home was told.  The Master Builder listened with interest and sighed at the same time.  Perhaps he was contrasting the nature of his neighbour’s wife with that of his own.  How would Madam have acted had her child come to her in such a plight?