"She would have been a spy over me.

I hope I have frightened her into the plague.

But if she dies of fear, it will answer my purpose as well.

And now for my husband." Taking up the lamp, and shading it with her hand, she gazed at his ghastly countenance.
"He slumbers tranquilly," she muttered, after contemplating him for some time, adding with a chuckling laugh, "it would be a pity to waken him." And seating herself on a stool near the pallet, she turned over in her mind in what way she could best execute her diabolical purpose.
While she was thus occupied, the messenger from Doctor Hodges arrived with a bundle of blankets and several phials and pots of ointment.

The man offered to place the blankets on the pallet, but Judith would not let him.
"I can do it better myself, and without disturbing the poor sufferer," she said.