Part 7 (2/2)
Prithee let me take my place beside Frederick, and relieve my mother when she be weary; so do I think it will be best for me and her.”
The father's face quivered with emotion as he took his daughter in his arms and kissed her tenderly.
”Thou shalt do as thou wilt, my sweet child,” he said. ”These indeed are fearful days, and it may be that happier are they who let their heart be ruled by love instead of by fear. Fear has become a cruel thing, from what men tell us. Thou shalt do thy desire. Yet methinks thy brother has scarce deserved this grace at thy hands.”
”Let us not think of that,” said Gertrude, with a look of pain in her eyes; ”let us only think of his peril, and of the terrible retribution which may fall upon him. G.o.d grant that he may find repentance and peace at the last!”
”Amen!” said the Master Builder, with some solemnity, thinking of the fas.h.i.+on in which his son's time had been spent of late, and of the very escapade which had brought this evil upon him.
All that night mother and sister watched beside the bed of the unhappy young man, who moaned and tossed, and too often broke into blasphemous railings at the fate which had overtaken him. He gave himself up for lost from the first, and having no hope or real belief as regards the future life, was full of darkness and bitterness of heart. He would not so much as listen when Gertrude would have spoken to him of the Saviour's love for sinners, but answered with mocking and profane words which made her heart die within her.
Towards morning he fell into a restless sleep, from which he wakened in a high fever, not knowing any of those about him. The father coming in, went towards him with a strange look in his eyes, and after bending over him a few seconds, turned a haggard face towards his wife and daughter, saying:
”May the Lord have mercy upon us! he has the tokens upon him!”
Instantly the mother uttered a scream of lamentation, and fell half senseless into her husband's arms; whilst Gertrude stood suddenly up with a white face and said:
”Let me take word to our neighbours next door. Master Harmer is an examiner. We must needs report it to him; and they will tell us what we must do, and give us help if any can.”
”Ay, that they will,” answered the Master Builder, with some emotion in his voice. ”Go, girl, and report that the distemper has broken out in the house, and that we submit ourselves to the orders of the authorities for all such as be infected.”
Gertrude sped upstairs. She preferred that method of transit to the one by the street door. But she had no need to go further than her attic; for upon opening the door she saw two figures in the room, and instantly recognized Reuben and his sister Janet. The latter came forward with outstretched hands, and would have taken Gertrude into her embrace, but that she drew back and said in a voice of warning:
”Take heed, Janet; touch me not. I have pa.s.sed the night by the bedside of my brother, and he is stricken with the plague!”
”So soon?” quoth Reuben, quickly; whilst Janet would not be denied her embrace, saying softly:
”I have no longer a fear of that distemper myself, for I have been with it erstwhile, and my aunt Dinah tells me that I have had a very mild attack of the same ill, and that I am not like to take it again.”
”If indeed Frederick is smitten, we must take precautions to close the house,” said Reuben. ”Is there aught you would wish to do ere giving the notice to my father?”
”Nay, I was on my way to him,” said Gertrude, speaking with the calmness of one upon whom the expected blow has at last fallen.
”Let what must be done be done quickly. Can we have a nurse? for methinks Frederick must needs have tendance more skilled than any we can give him. But let it not be one of those women”--Gertrude paused and shuddered, as though she knew not how to finish her sentence.
”Trust me to do all for you that lies in my power,” answered Reuben, in a voice of emotion; ”and never feel shut up altogether from the world; even when the outer door be locked and guarded by a watchman. I have already hung a bell within our house, and the cord is tied here upon this nail. In any time of need you have but to ring it, and be sure that the summons will be speedily answered.”
A mist rose before Gertrude's eyes and a lump in her throat. She pressed Janet's hand, and said to Reuben in a husky voice:
”I have no words today. Some day I will find how to thank you for all this goodness at such a time.”
Before many hours had pa.s.sed Dinah Morse was installed beside the sick man. Strong perfumes were burnt in and about his room, and the terrible tumours which bespoke the poison in his blood were treated skilfully by poultices and medicaments, applied by one who thoroughly understood the nature of the disease and the course it ran.
But from the first it was apparent to a trained eye that the young man was doomed. There was too much poison in his blood before, and his const.i.tution was undermined by his reckless and dissolute life.
All that was possible was done to relieve the sufferings and abate the fever of the patient. One of the best and most devoted of the doctors who remained courageously at his post during this terrible time was called in. But he shook his head over the patient, and bid his parents make up their minds for the worst.
”You have the best nurse in all London,” said Dr. Hooker. ”If skill and care could save him, he would be saved. But I fear me the poison has spread all over. Be cautious how you approach him, for he breathes forth death to those who are not inoculated. I would I could do more for you, but our skill avails little before this dread scourge.”
And so, with looks and words of friendly compa.s.sion and goodwill, the doctor took his departure; and before nightfall Frederick was called to his last account.
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