As for us, we have lost a summer's trade, but, beyond that, all has been well with us.

We have had the fewer outgoings, and so soon as the gentry and the Court come back again we shall be as busy as ever.

The plague has done us little harm, for we had no great ventures afloat to miscarry, and had money laid by against any time of necessity." That evening, before the party retired to rest, the father gathered his children and all the household about him, and offered a fervent thanksgiving for their preservation during this time of peril.
After that they all separated to their own rooms, and the girls sat long together ere they sought their couches, talking, as girls will talk, of all that had happened to them, and of the coming marriage of Gertrude and their brother, over which they heartily rejoiced.
"I must e'en let Lady Scrope know when it is to be," said Dorcas, "if I can make shift to do so.

I trow she would like to be there.
She has taken a wondrous liking to thee, Gertrude, and she says she has a fine opinion of Reuben, too.

I know not quite what she has heard of him, but so it is." "I was fearful lest she should not be willing to spare thee, Dorcas," said Gertrude with a caress, "but here thou art with the rest." "Yes, she was wondrous good to us," said Janet eagerly, "else I scarce know how we could have come, for there were six children left in the house, and no homes yet found for them to go to.