Gertrude took the box, which amazed her by its weight, and suggested ideas of value quite out of keeping with what she had any reason to expect from one so little known to her as Lady Scrope.  She thanked the donor with shy gratitude, and pressed the withered hand to her fresh young lips.  Lady Scrope, a little moved despite her cynical fashion of talking, gave her several affectionate kisses; and then the other girls came in to see the last of their companion, and to charge her with many messages of love for Reuben.

Joseph during this interval darted round to his father’s house, to exchange a kiss with his mother and tell her the good news.  It was indeed a happy day for the parents to hear that the son whom they had given up for lost was living, and likely, under Gertrude’s care, to do well.  They had not dared to murmur or repine.  It seemed to them little short of a miracle that death had spared to them all their children through this fearful season.  When they believed one had at last been taken, they had learned the strength and courage to say, “God’s will be done.”  Yet it was happiness inexpressible to know that he was not only living, but in the safe retreat of Mary Harmer’s cottage, and under her tender and skilful care.

So used were they now to the thought of those they loved caring for the sick, that they had almost ceased to fear contagion so encountered.  It appeared equally busy amongst those who fled from it.  They did not even chide Joseph for the reckless curiosity which had led the boys to adventure themselves without cause in the fashion that had led to such notable results.

When Joseph returned to Lady Scrope’s, it was to find Gertrude arrayed in the clothes provided for her, and looking, save for her dainty prettiness, quite like a country girl come in with marketable wares.  Such things of her own as she needed for her sojourn, together with Lady Scrope’s precious box, were put into the barrow beneath the empty basket and sacks.  Then with many affectionate farewells the pair started forth, and talking eagerly all the while, took their way through the solitary grass-grown streets, away through Cripplegate, and out towards the pleasanter regions beyond the walls.

Joseph sought to engross his companion in talk, so that she might not see or heed too much the dismal aspect of all around them.  He himself had seen a considerable difference in the city between the time he and Benjamin had left it and today.  In places it almost seemed as though no living soul now remained; and he observed that foot passengers in the streets went about more recklessly than before, with a set and desperate expression of countenance, as though they had made up their minds to the worst, and cared little whether their fate overtook them today or a week hence.