She did not ask the doctor what he thought of Peggy, though I saw the words trembling on her lips.

She dared not do it.
From that night the seclusion of our cottage home was broken up.

Disease had entered and swept down the barriers of circumstance curiosity had so long respected.

We felt the drawings of that golden chain of sympathy which binds together the great family of mankind.
Peggy's disease was a fever, of a peculiar and malignant character.

It was the first case which occurred; but it spread through the town, so that scarcely a family was exempt from its ravages.