in Medea's house. With a cry of horror she sprang up, snatched at the
lamp, held it over the sufferer, heedless of his cries of anguish, looked
into his face, and pulled away the weary hands with which he tried to
screen his eyes from the light. Then, having convinced herself that she
was not mistaken, she fled from room to room out into the hall.

Here she was met by the housekeeper, who took the lamp out of her hand
and was about to question her; but Katharina only screamed:

"The plague is in the house! Lock the doors!" and then rushed away,
past the leech who was coming in. With one bound she was in the chariot,
and as the horses started she wailed out to the nurse:

"The plague--they have the plague. Plotinus has taken the plague!"

The terrified woman tried to soothe her, assuring her that she must be
mistaken for such hellish fiends did not dare come near so holy a man.
But the girl vouchsafed no reply, merely desiring her to have a bath made
ready for her as soon as they should reach home.

She felt utterly shattered; on the spot where the old man's plague-
stricken hand had rested she was conscious of a heavy, hateful pressure,
and when the chariot at length drove into their own garden something warm
and heavy-something she could not shake off, still seemed to weigh on her
brain.

The windows were all dark excepting one on the ground-floor, where a
light was still visible in the room inhabited by Heliodora. A diabolical
thought flashed through her over-excited and restless mind; without
looking to the right hand or the left she obeyed the impulse and went