e is
poison in every breath which you draw, but this hazard has been greatly
increased by abstaining from food and sleep. My advice is to hasten back
into the country; but you must first take some repose and some victuals.
If you pass Schuylkill before nightfall, it will be sufficient."

I mentioned the difficulty of procuring accommodation on the road. It
would be most prudent to set out upon my journey so as to reach
_Malverton_ at night. As to food and sleep, they were not to be
purchased in this city.

"True," answered my companion, with quickness, "they are not to be
bought; but I will furnish you with as much as you desire of both, for
nothing. That is my abode," continued he, pointing to the house which he
had lately left. "I reside with a widow lady and her daughter, who took
my counsel, and fled in due season. I remain to moralize upon the scene,
with only a faithful black, who makes my bed, prepares my coffee, and
bakes my loaf. If I am sick, all that a physician can do, I will do for
myself, and all that a nurse can perform, I expect to be performed by
_Austin_.

"Come with me, drink some coffee, rest a while on my mattress, and then
fly, with my benedictions on your head."

These words were accompanied by features disembarrassed and benevolent.
My temper is alive to social impulses, and I accepted his invitation,
not so much because I wished to eat or to sleep, but because I felt
reluctance to part so soon with a being who possessed so much fortitude
and virtue.

He was surrounded by neatness and plenty. Austin added dexterity to
submissiveness. My companion, whose name I now found to be Medlicote,
was prone to converse, and commented on the state of the city like one
whose reading had been extensive and experience large. He combated an
opinion which I had casually formed respecting the origin of this
epidemic, and imputed it, not to infected substances imported from the
East or West, but to a morbid constitution of the atmosphere, owing
wholly or in part to filthy streets, airless habitations, and squalid
persons.

As I talked with this man, the sense of danger was obliterated, I felt
confidence revive in my heart, and energy revisit my stomach. Though far
from my wonted health, my sensation grew less comfortless, and I found
myself to stand in no need of repose.

Breakfast being finished, my friend pleaded his daily engagements as
reasons for leaving me. He counselled me to strive for some repose,