"Where is Judith Malmayns?" asked Doctor Hodges: "I am surprised not to
see her. Is she afraid of the distemper?"

"Afraid of it!--not she," replied the old woman. "Since the plague has
raged so dreadfully, she has gone out as a nurse to the sick, and my
poor son has seen nothing of her."

Leonard then recollected that he had heard the woman, who called out of
the miser's house, addressed as Mother Malmayns by the coffin-maker, and
had no doubt that she was the sexton's wife. His entrance having been so
noiseless that it passed unnoticed, he now stepped forward, and,
addressing Doctor Hodges, acquainted him with his errand.

"What!" exclaimed the doctor, as soon as he concluded, "a son of Stephen
Bloundel, the worthy grocer of Wood-street, attacked by the plague! I
will go with you instantly, young man. I have a great regard for your
master--a very great regard. There is not a better man living. The poor
lad must be saved, if possible." And hastily repeating his instructions
to the attendants of the sick man, he left the vault with the
apprentice.

They found the verger in the charnel, and before quitting it, the doctor
drew a small flask of canary from his pocket, and applied it to his
lips.

"This is my anti-pestilential drink," he remarked with a smile, "and it
has preserved me from contagion hitherto. You must let us out of the
south door, friend," he added to the verger, "for I shall be obliged to
step home for a moment, and it will save time. Come with me, young man,
and tell me what has been done for the grocer's son."