“The small-pox!”
“Yes, madam, the confluent small-pox, in its worst form.”
“You astonish me! I trust—I believe you are mistaken!”
“No—I wish to Heaven I was! No, madam! Doctor’s opinion!”
“Why, how on earth. Sit down, Mr. Clifton! Kate, my dear, wheel that arm-chair around.”
Catherine obeyed, and the old gentleman sank among its soft cushions, and took out his pocket-handkerchief and wiped his face.
“How on earth could she have got it?” asked Mrs. Clifton.
“Ah! Lord Almighty knows! Came spontaneously, I do suppose! You noticed those two pimples that appeared upon her forehead after the crisis of her fever passed?”
“Yes; but I thought nothing of them.”
“Nor did we at the time. But at any rate, that was the first appearance of the eruption—little as we guessed it at the time. You see, she naturally began to grow better when this other disease began to break out, I suppose. Indeed, I have no doubt it was the coming of the small-pox, that arrested the fatal termination of the brain fever. Well, you see, last night after you had left her so much better, we entrusted her to the care of Zuleime, who did not seem to be so much worn out with watching as the rest of us. So Zuleime sat up with her; and she tells me that before midnight her face was sprinkled all over with those pimples. And this morning, when I first saw her—” The old man’s voice broke down for a moment. “Oh! it was dreadful! Her beautiful, fair face, neck, bosom, arms, all covered over with that horrible eruption! It had all run together in one mass. We sent off to hasten the arrival of the doctor, who, when he came, pronounced the disease to be confluent small-pox. Oh, it is horrible! horrible, even, if her life be spared! Disfigured for life! What a fate for a woman! I drove Zuleime out of the room against her will—for she, dear, generous girl, wished to stay and tend her sister. Georgia told me at breakfast, that she had just got a letter from her father, who was ill—and that she must have the carriage to go to Richmond. She did not show me the letter, for she made haste and started almost immediately. Everything falls out disastrously at once. Now, what am I to do? I cannot procure a nurse to that disease, for love or money, in this neighborhood. Advise me what to do. The necessity is so urgent!”