'"Why Henrietta?" I began.
'"Hush! don't disturb her;" and she pointed to Bessie, who was lying with her head resting on one arm. "She is sleeping more quietly now, but for a long time she moaned and muttered, and tossed about so restlessly, that I was quite frightened. I was obliged to move your head on to my knee, for fear she should wake you."
'"But, Henrietta," I whispered, "have not you been asleep at all yourself?"
'"Oh yes; I believe I slept for a little while, until Bessie woke me by muttering in such a strange way. I am afraid she must be ill. Look at her cheek, how flushed it is now."
'It was indeed burning with a scarlet, unnatural flush, quite unlike her own soft, pink colour, which always reminded one of the petals of a wood anemone. Suddenly, as I looked at her, came into my mind what Mrs. Fortescue had said about the terrible fever at the jail, and the fear of infection; and I thought of that poor girl who was just recovering from it, and to whom Bessie and I had talked so much at dinner the day before. Somehow, the very serious risk that we ran had never struck me until this moment; but now that I did realize it, a perfect panic of fear began to overwhelm me.
'"Oh Henrietta!" I cried, springing to my feet. "She is going to have the fever. I know she is. Oh poor, poor Bessie! Perhaps she will die; and we shall all catch it, and die too. Oh mamma! I must go home to mamma. I cannot stay in this horrible place any longer;" and then I clung to Henrietta's neck, and sobbed in a kind of helpless, wretched way, feeling utterly unable to stop myself.
"'Hush! hush! sweetheart: think of Bessie," she whispered imploringly. "And the others too; they would be so angry if we woke them."
'But I was too far gone to control myself; and seeing this, Henrietta made no further attempt to check my sobs, but held me in her arms, and let me smother them on her shoulder. Bessie still slept on, in spite of my sudden outburst, and none of our fellow-prisoners gave any sign of being awake.
'"Frances," said Henrietta gently, after a little while, when I began to be somewhat calmer, "we must not forget our prayers, must we, though we are in such a place as this? Don't you think we might say them now, while it is all quiet, and there is no one to interrupt us?"
'She spoke with a sort of shyness and hesitation, as if it was an effort to talk of such a subject even to me, child as I was, and in the dim light of early morning. "If you please," I murmured; and we knelt and said the Lord's Prayer softly together, and then part of the Litany: "In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord deliver us!" It was the first time that I had ever said that passage with all my heart.