Poor Mr Prothero was beside himself, and the whole household was in great consternation.

Serious illness had never visited either the farm or the vicarage before, and none of the Prothero family knew what it was.

Not so Gladys, however.

She did not wait to be directed or ordered, but took her post as nurse by her dear mistress's bedside.

To her the doctor gave his directions, to her Mr Prothero turned for information, to her Owen came for comfort; and even Mrs Jonathan, who had scarcely ever spoken to her before, looked to her as the only hope in this time of uncertainty.
'I have seen all kind of fevers,' she would say to one and another as they questioned her, 'worse than this, and with God's grace the dear mistress will recover.