He therefore first sought out the sister with whom he felt certain he could obtain speech; and she had drawn him into a little parlour hard by the street door, in great astonishment at seeing him there, and fearful at first (as folks had grown to be of late) that he was the bearer of evil tidings.
The joy and relief were therefore so great that she could not restrain her tears, and between laughing, crying, and repeating in astonished snatches the words of explanation which fell from Joseph's lips, she made such an unwonted commotion in the ordinarily silent house, that soon the tap of a stick could have been heard by ears less preoccupied coming down the stairs and along the passage, and the door was pushed open to admit the little upright figure of the mistress of the house.
"Hoity toity! art thou bereft of thy senses, child?
What in fortune's name means all this?
"Boy, who art thou?
and what dost thou here?
A brother, forsooth! Come with some news, perchance?
Well, well, well; how goes it in the city?
Are any left alive?
They say at the rate we are going now, it will take but a month more to destroy the city even as Sodom was destroyed!" "O madam," cried Dorcas dashing away her tears, and turning an eager face towards the witch-like old woman, who in her silk gown, hooped and looped up, her fine lace cap and mittens, and her ebony stick with its ivory head, looked the impersonation of a fairy godmother, "this is my brother Joseph, and he comes with welcome tidings.

My brother Reuben is not dead, albeit he has in truth been smitten by the plague.

Joseph found him yesterday in the pest house just beyond Clerkenwell; and he is in a fair way to recover, if his mind can but be set at rest.
"Oh what news this will be for our parents!--for the girls!--for Gertrude! Oh how we have mourned and wept together; and now we shall rejoice with full hearts!" "Has Mistress Gertrude mourned for him too ?" asked Joseph eagerly.
"Marry that is good hearing, for I have wondered all this while whether I should obtain the grace from her for which I have come." "And what is that, young man ?" asked Lady Scrope, tapping her cane upon the ground as much as to say that in her own house she was not going to take a secondary place, and that conversation was to be addressed to her.

Joseph turned to her at once and answered: "Verily, good madam, my aunt has sent me hither to fetch Mistress Gertrude forthwith to his side.

She says that he calls ceaselessly upon her, and that unless he can see her beside him he may yet die of the disappointment and trouble, albeit the plague is stayed in his case, and it is but the fever of weakness that is upon him.