So, as these happy summer days flew by, the clouds of anxiety and apprehension seemed to disperse and roll away.  The sisters were living in a world that was something new to them.  Womanhood was awakening within them.  They were learning something of its sweetness, of its power, as also of its perplexities and pain.  There was no doubt whatever as to the fervency of Anthony Dalaber’s love for Freda; whilst Arthur Cole paid such marked attention to Magdalen that she could not but believe him in earnest, albeit no word of love had so far escaped his lips.

With July came a change in the situation.  One of the many pestilences so frequent in the country and so damaging to Oxford broke out in the neighbourhood of Carfax.  It had some of the sweating-sickness symptoms, but was distinct from it in other respects.  For a while it did not penetrate into the colleges, and the university authorities made strict rules for the undergraduates and students, hoping that the scourge would confine itself to the town and the families of the citizens.  But it was impossible to keep the clerks from wandering through the streets or entering shops and taverns, and little by little cases of sickness appeared first in the halls and then in the colleges, till it was evident that the epidemic was to be a serious one.

From the first Clarke had busied himself in visiting and tending the sick.  He quitted for the time being his rooms in Cardinal College, and lodged with Stephen Radley, who accompanied him on his errands of mercy.  Clarke was one of those men to be found in great numbers in university communities who, whilst not yet in full priest’s orders, was qualifying for the priesthood, wore the tonsure, and having passed his degree in arts, was preparing himself in the schools of theology for the career to which he was dedicated.  All the canons of Cardinal College were supposed to follow this course of training.

But it was not only amongst the men that self sacrifice and devotion made itself manifest.  Dr. Langton’s two daughters were as forward as any in the desire to help and tend the sick, and perform such offices of pity and kindliness as lay within their power.  Their father did not oppose them, though he laid down certain rules, which they dutifully obeyed, by which he hoped to guard them from infection.  For his part, he was always foremost in the fight with disease and contagion, and wherever the need was sorest, there was he to be found.

Thus it came about that John Clarke and Stephen Radley often found themselves face to face with the fair girls, who came and went like sisters of mercy amid the poor houses crowded together in the low-lying lands without the city walls; and Anthony Dalaber, flinging himself into the crusade with his accustomed energy, found himself in almost constant attendance upon them, carrying out their orders, assisting them in their labour of mercy, and growing more ardently in love with his chosen mistress every day of his life.