His wife and eldest son would have assisted him, but he motioned them away.
"Let me go with you, sir," cried Leonard, who had arisen with the others; "I will nurse you; my life is of little consequence, and I cannot be more satisfactorily employed." The grocer reluctantly assented, and the apprentice assisted him upstairs, and helped to place him in bed.

No plague-token could be found about his person, but as the same alarming symptoms still continued, Leonard administered such remedies as he thought needful, and then went in search of Doctor Hodges.
On reaching Watling-street, he found Doctor Hodges about to retire to rest.

The worthy physician was greatly distressed by the apprentice's account of his master's illness; but was somewhat reassured when the symptoms were more minutely described to him.

While preparing certain medicines, and arming himself with his surgical implements, he questioned Leonard as to the cause of his long disappearance.

"Having seen nothing of you," he said, "since the fatal night when our poor Amabel's sorrows were ended, I began to feel very apprehensive on your account.