Rafael Sabatini

“ And when, pray, did he cease to be your friend—this man who stayed with you in this infected house when he might have fled; this man who has denied himself sleep or rest of any kind in all these days, that he might be ever at hand against your need of him; this man who has wrestled with death for you, and rescued you at the risk of taking the pestilence a thousand times for your sake? ”

“ Dallows. No need to carry him farther or to do more for him at present. Never fear, you'll not rouse him—not until the clock has gone round once, at least."
They laid him there, a pillow under his head, and Beamish returned to his patient's side. She had sunk back again, but her eyes, looking enormous now in her wasted cheeks, were still upon the figure of Holles where he lay inert as stone, just within the orbit of her vision.
"Sleep?" she questioned the doctor, wonderingly. "Is that sleep?"
Never had she—nor, indeed, have many—seen slumber fell a man as if he had been shot. ”

“ The balsam of sulphur which the little doctor left with him to be used as a disinfectant was never touched; the wormwood, masterwort, and zedoary pressed upon him as prophylactics were equally neglected.
"My friend," the doctor had said to him as early as the second day of her illness, "if you continue thus you will end by killing yourself."
Holles had smiled as he replied: "If she lives, her life will have been cheaply purchased at the price. If she dies, it will not signify." ”

“ Of sleeping he never so much as thought, whilst the snatches of food and drink that constituted his meals, forced upon him by the nurse-keeper, were taken there at Nancy's bedside.
Mrs. Dallows remonstrated with him, urging him to take some rest in the hours during which she was herself on duty. It was in vain. Equally vain were the same remonstrances when more authoritatively urged by Dr. Beamish. Holles left them unheeded as he did the physician's recommendations that he should take some of the ordinary precautions to keep himself immune. ”

“ The Colonel has never so much as closed his eyes for a whole week. Nature compassionately has closed them for him. No need to afflict yourself on his behalf. Sleep is all he now requires. So give yourself peace, and beware of making demands upon the little strength that's left you. ”

“ There in Knight Ryder Street he could see the closed houses—and there were already three of them within the radius of his view on the opposite side of the street—each with its red cross and an armed watchman day and night before its padlocked door.
Victuals and what else was needed from outside reached them through the agency of their own watchman. Holles, who was still plentifully supplied with funds from what Buckingham had furnished him for this adventure, would lower the necessary money from the window in a basket. ”

“ When you shall have recovered your strength, you may go whither you will without further fear of the infection. The plague will not touch you again. For the great mercy thus vouchsafed you, you may render thanks to God, and, next to God, to your husband. ”