life; but it seemed
rather to cause it to burn more strongly. The fragile creature
looked full of courage, and the fears she experienced at this
moment were less for herself than for others.

"My dear lord! my dear lord!" she kept repeating. "Dinah, if he
were living nothing would keep him from me. Where is he gone? Dost
thou think he will return in time?"

"I think so, my dear lady," answered Dinah in her full, quiet
voice; "I pray he may come soon!"

"Yes, pray for him, pray for him!" cried the lady clasping her
hands, "I have not prayed for him enough. Pray that his precious
life may be preserved!"

Dinah clasped her hands and bent her head. Her whole faculties
seemed merged in one great stress of urgent prayer. The lady looked
at her and touched her hand gently.

"You are a good woman, Dinah Morse. I am glad to have you with me;
but if my good lord come not soon, you must save yourself and fly.
I will not have you lose your life for me. You have not strength to
bear me hence, and I cannot walk. You must fly and save yourself.
For me, if my dear lord be dead, life has nothing for me to desire
it."

"Madam," answered Dinah, in her calm, resolute way, "your good
lord, my master, entrusted you to my care, and that charge I cannot
and will not quit whatever may betide. God is with us in the midst
of the fire as truly as He was in the raging of the plague. He
brought me safe through the one peril, and I can trust Him for this
second one. Our lives we may not recklessly cast away, neither may
we fly from our post of duty lightly, and without due warrant."

Lady Desborough's thin white fingers closed over Dinah's steady
hand with a grateful pressure.

"Thou art a good woman, Dinah," she said. "Thy presence beside me
gives me strength and hope. Truly I should dread to be left alone,
and yet I would not have thee stay if the peril becomes great."

"We will trust that help may reach us shortly," answered Dinah, who
realized the magnitude of the peril far more clearly than did the
sick lady, who had no idea of the awful extent of the fire.

That it was a bad one she was well aware, and in perilous proximity
to their dwelling; but Dinah had not told her, nor had she for a
moment guessed, that half the city of London was already destroyed.

"Go and look from the windows," she said a few minutes later, when
the two had sat in silent prayer and meditation for that brief
interval. "Go see what is happening in the stre