The occupation was a useful one, as it distracted the thoughts of those engaged in it from the sick room.
Cyril did not enter there. He had told the girl to call him should there be any necessity, but said,—
"Do not call me unless absolutely needful, if, for instance, he becomes violent, in which case we must fasten the sheets across him so as to restrain him. But it is of no use your remaining shut up there if I go in and out of the room to carry the infection to the others."
"You have hurt your arm, doctor?" the mother said, when the arrangements were all made, and they had returned to the room below.
"Yes," he said; "I met with an accident, and must, for a short time, keep my arm in a sling."
"You look young, sir, to be running these fearful perils."
"I am young," Cyril said, "and have not yet completed all my studies; but Dr. Hodges judged that I was sufficiently advanced to be able to be of service to him, not so much in prescribing as by seeing that his orders were carried out."
Every half hour he went upstairs, and inquired, through the door, as to the state of the boy.
Late in the afternoon he heard the girl crying bitterly within. He knocked, and she cried out,—
"He is dead, sir; he has just expired."