She was greatly in request amongst the sick of the better class, though she was often to be found beside the sick poor, who could give her nothing but thanks for her skilled tendance of them.
"Ay, truly, so long as the cases are duly reported," she repeated slowly.

"But do you think, sir, that that is ever done where means may be found to avoid it ?" The Master Builder looked a little startled at the question.
"Surely all good folks would wish to do what was right by their neighbours.

They would not harbour a case of plague, and not make it known in the right quarter." "You think not, perhaps.

Had you seen as much of the sick as I have, you would know that men so fear and dread the distemper, as they most often call it, that they will blind their eyes to it to the very last, and do everything in their power to make it out as something other than what they fear.

I have seen enough of the ways of folks with sickness to be very sure that all who have friends to protect the fearful secret, will do so if it be possible.