Still, that is what I should do myself as soon as I could get
away, were it not that, in my case, I have my duties here."
"But, doctor, what you said to me surely applies to yourself also?"
Cyril said, with a smile.
"I know that," the doctor said good-humouredly, "and expected it, but
it is not for a doctor to choose. He is not free, like other men; he
has adopted a vocation in which it is his first duty to go among the
sick, whatever their ailment may be, to do all that he can for them,
and if, as in the present case, he can do practically nothing else,
to set them an example of calmness and fearlessness. Still, for a
time, at any rate, I shall be able to go no more into houses where
the Plague is raging. 'Tis more than a month since you were cured,
yet you are still a mere shadow of what you were. I had a much harder
fight with the enemy, and cannot walk across the room yet without
William's help. Therefore, it will be a fortnight or three weeks yet
before I can see patients, and much longer before I shall have
strength to visit them in their houses. By that time I trust that the
Plague will have very greatly abated. Thus, you see, I shall not be
called upon to stand face to face with it for some time. Those who
call upon me here are seldom Plague-stricken. They come for other
ailments, or because they feel unwell, and are nervous lest it should
be the beginning of an attack; but of late I have had very few come
here. My patients are mostly of the middle class, and these have
either fled or fallen victims to the Plague, or have shut themselves
up in their houses like fortresses, and nothing would tempt them to
issue abroad.
Pages:
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380