In places it almost seemed as though no living soul now remained; and he observed that foot passengers in the streets went about more recklessly than before, with a set and desperate expression of countenance, as though they had made up their minds to the worst, and cared little whether their fate overtook them today or a week hence.
Gertrude's thoughts, however, were so much with Reuben, that she heeded but little of what she saw around her.

She spoke of him incessantly, and begged again and again to hear the story of how he had been found.

Her cheek flushed a delicate rose tint each time she heard how he had called for her ceaselessly in his delirium.
That showed her, if nothing else could convince her of it, how true and disinterested his love was; that it was for herself he had always wooed her, and not for any hope of the fortune she had at one time looked to receive from her father as her marriage dowry.
When they had passed the last of the houses, and stood in the sunny meadows, with the blue sky above them and the songs of birds in their ears, Gertrude heaved a great sigh of relief, and her eyes filled with tears.
"O beautiful trees and fields!" she cried; "it seems as though nothing of danger and death could overshadow the dwellers in such fair places." "So Benjamin and I thought," said Joseph gravely; "but, alas, the plague has been busy here, too.

See, there is a cluster of houses down there, and but three of them are now inhabited.

The pestilence came and smote right and left, and in some houses not one was left alive.