CHAPTER XXX
THE DARK DAYS
I remember the weeks after that like a bad dream. The small-pox had
spread from Araglin to other villages and to the isolated cabins. No one
knew where it had come from, or where it would go next, for it spread
like wildfire. And the doctors and nurses had come down from Dublin in a
cheerful little band and were fighting it heroically. For some weeks
there were only new outbreaks to tell of. For some weeks there were
panic and terror everywhere.
My lover wanted to marry me and carry me away out of the danger; but
that I would not hear of. It was enough that to please him I must shut
myself away in a selfish isolation. If I had been a free woman I would
have insisted on going, as my godmother had gone, while yet the help was
wanted. During those weeks I was cut off from the comfort of her
presence, for even when she was no longer needed she was in quarantine
lest she should have taken the infection.
I will say that the Dawsons gave generously of their money for the aid
of the people.
When we knew first of the outbreak and heard that Mary Champion was in
the thick of it, my lover was moody and silent for a while even when he
was with me.
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