he midst
of his sons and daughters, and commending them all most fervently
to the protection of Heaven, praying for grace to do their duty
towards all about them, and for leading and guidance that they ran
not into needless peril, but were directed in all things by the
Spirit of God.

They had hardly risen from their knees before a knock at the door
announced the arrival of a visitor, and Joseph running to answer
the summons--since there was now no servant in the house--came back
almost immediately ushering in the Master Builder, whose face wore
a very troubled look.

"Heaven guard us all! I think my wife will go distraught with the
terror of this visitation, if it goes on much longer. What is a man
to do for the best? She raves at me sometimes like a maniac for not
having taken her away ere the scourge spread as it is doing now.
But when I tell her that if she is bent upon it she must e'en go
now, she cries out that nothing would induce her to set her foot
outside the house. She sits with the curtains and shutters fast
closed, and a fire of spices on the hearth, till one is fairly
stifled, and will touch nothing that is not well-nigh soaked in
vinegar. And each time that Frederick comes in with some fresh
tale, she is like to swoon with fear, and every time she vows that
it is the pestilence attacking her, and is like to die from sheer
fright. What is a man to do with such a wife and such a son?"

"Surely Frederick will cease to repeat tales of horror when he sees
they so alarm his mother," said Rachel; but the Master Builder
shook his head with an air of more than doubt.

"It seems his delight to torment her with terror; and she appears
almost equally eager to hear all, though it almost scares her out
of her senses. As for Gertrude, the child is pining like a caged
bird shut up in the house and not suffered to stir into the fresh
air. I am fair beset to know what to do for them. Nothing will
convince Madam but that there be dead carts at every street corner,
and that the child will bring home death with her every time she
stirs out. Yet Frederick comes to and fro, and she admits him to
her presence (though she holds a handkerchief steeped in vinegar to
her nose the while), and she gets no harm from him."

"Poor child!" said Rachel, thinking of Gertrude, whom once she had
known so well, running to and fro in the house almost like one of
her own. "Would that we could do somewhat for her. But I fear me
her mother