They seemed very interested in you, and were very
pleased when I told them that I had now given up attending you, and
that you were able to walk across the room, and would, erelong, be
yourself again. I hope we are getting to the end of it now, lad. As
the Plague travels East it abates in the West, and the returns for
the last week show a distinct fall in the rate of mortality. There is
no further East for it to go now, and I hope that in another few
weeks it will have worn itself out. We are half through October, and
may look for cold weather before long."
"I should think that I am strong enough to be useful again now, sir."
"I don't think you are strong enough, and I am sure I shall not give
you leave to do so," the doctor said. "I can hardly say how far a
first attack is a protection against a second, for the recoveries
have been so few that we have scarce means of knowing, but there
certainly have been cases where persons have recovered from a first
attack and died from a second. Your treatment is too severe to be
gone through twice, and it is, therefore, more essential that you
should run no risk of infection than it was before. I can see that
you are still very far from strong, and your duty now is, in the
first place, to regain your health. I should say get on board a hoy
and go to Yarmouth. A week in the bracing air there would do you more
good than six months here. But it is useless to give you that advice,
because, in the first place, no shipping comes up the river, and,
even if you could get down to Yarmouth by road, no one would receive
you.
Pages:
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379