Mrs. Winn went back to the work-room after she had had her own tea, feeling vaguely uneasy about Tom. It might be only a feverish cold, she argued with herself, but she wished he did not roll his head so much when he was asleep, for she began to fear that it might mean a more serious illness than a simple cold. If she did not have to practice such strict economy, she would have sent for a doctor at once; but doctors' bills were a terror to her, and she sent Elsie to the chemist's for some medicine, which she gave him in the course of the evening, hoping he would be a good deal better in the morning.
The medicine certainly seemed to relieve his head, after he had taken it a few hours, but instead of being able to get up the next morning, as his mother had hoped, Tom was most unmistakably very ill when she went to see him, and she decided to send for the doctor without further delay.
So when Jane Holmes came at nine o'clock, Mrs. Winn asked her to go and fetch Dr. Weston to see Tom as soon as he possibly could. And when she came back, she sent her to the work-room, to wait there until after the doctor had been.
Poor woman! She did not tell even Elsie what she feared was ailing Tom. She could only hope that the doctor would say she was quite mistaken, and that the symptoms were only those of a feverish cold.
But her heart almost died within her when the doctor, after examining Tom, turned to her and said, "Where has he been, Mrs. Winn?"
"He goes to school, doctor," she said in a faint voice.
"Has he been playing in Sadler Street? Do any of his friends or school-fellows live in that street?" asked the doctor.
"He has no business to go near the street, but I cannot say that he has not, for he has been rather late coming home from school lately."
"The reason I asked was this, they have scarlet fever in that neighbourhood rather badly just now, and this looks like another case, and I have heard of no other at this end of the town."
"Oh, sir!" was all the poor woman could utter for a minute or two. For scarlet fever would mean the ruin of her business, and might possibly bring them all to beggary before it had run its course.