any say that it
is good for some of the old houses to burn, that they may build
better ones little by little. Now take this cordial, and sleep once
more. I will awaken you when my lord returns."

The lady obeyed, and soon slept again, her pulse stronger and
firmer and her mind at rest.

But Dinah was growing very uneasy. Far though she was above the
street, she heard shouts and cries--muffled and distant truly, but
very apparent to her strained faculties--all indicative of alarm
and the presence of peril. She dared not leave her post at the
bedside, but the air was becoming so thick with smoke that the
patient coughed from time to time, and the nurse was not certain
how much longer it would be possible to breathe in it. She was
certain, too, that the place was becoming hot, increasingly hot,
each minute.

Oh, where was Lord Desborough? why did he not come? At last she
stole from the room and into the adjoining chamber, and then indeed
an awful sight met her shrinking gaze.

A pillar of lambent flame, which seemed to her to be close at hand,
was rising up in the air as though it reached the very heavens. It
swayed slowly this way and that, surrounded by clouds of crimson
smoke and a veritable furnace of sparks. Then, as she watched with
awed and fascinated gaze, it suddenly seemed to make a bound
towards the tower of St. Paul's standing up majestic and beautiful
against the fiery sky. It fastened upon it like a living monster
greedy of prey. Tongues of flame seemed to be licking it on all
sides, and a mass of fire encircled it.

With a gasp of fear and horror Dinah turned away.

"St. Paul's on fire!" she exclaimed beneath her breath; "God in His
mercy have pity upon us! Can any one save us now?"

CHAPTER XIX. JUST IN TIME.

Lady Desborough sat up in bed propped up with pillows, dressed in
such flowing garments as Dinah had been able to array her in, her
eyes shining in anxious expectation, her panting breath showing the
oppression caused by the murkiness of the atmosphere. But in spite
of the peril of the situation, to which she had now awakened with
full comprehension; in spite of the fatigue of being partially
dressed, with a view to sudden flight; in spite of the horror of
knowing herself to be alone with Dinah in this flame-encircled
house, her spirit rose to the occasion, triumphing over the
weakness of the flesh. Dinah had feared that the knowledge of the
peril would extinguish the faint flame of