my life, would be in the
fangs of one of the most dreadful and dangerous diseases known to
humanity. More, having never been vaccinated, that disease was sure to
strike her with its full force, and the type of it which had appeared
in the city was such that certainly not more than one-half of the
unprotected persons attacked came alive out of the struggle.

This was bad enough, but there were other things behind. I had never
been vaccinated since infancy, over fifty years ago, and was therefore
practically unprotected with the enemy that all my lifetime I had
dreaded, as I dreaded no other thing or imagination, actually standing
at my door. I could not go away because of the election; I dared not
show fear, because they would cry: "Look at the hangman when he sees the
rope." Here, since compulsory vaccination had been abandoned, we fought
smallpox by a system of isolation so rigorous that under its cruel
provisions every one of whatever age, rank or sex in whom the disease
declared itself was instantly removed to a hospital, while the
inhabitants of the house whence the patient came were kept practically
in prison, not being allowed to mix with their fellows. We had returned
to the preventive measures of centuries ago, much as they were practised
in the time of the Great Plague.

But how could I send my daughter to one of those dreadful pest-pits,
there at the moment of struggle to be a standing advertisement of the
utter failure and falsity of the system I had preached, backing my
statements with the wager of her life? Moreover, to do so would be to
doom myself to defeat at the poll, since under our byelaws, which were
almost ferocious in their severity, I could no longer appear in public
to prosecute my canvass, and, if my personal influence was withdrawn,
then most certainly my adversary would win.

Oh, truly I who had sown bounteously was reaping bounteously. Truly the
birds which I had sent out on their mission of evil had come home to
roost upon my roof-tree.

CHAPTER XIII

HARVEST

Another five days went by--to me they were days of most unspeakable
doubt and anguish. Each morning at breakfast I waited for the coming of
Jane with an anxiety which was all the more dreadful because I forced
myself to conceal it. There had been no further conversation between us
about the matter that haunted both our minds, and so fearful was I lest
she should divine my suspense that except in the most casual way I did