human
No; go on, I beg you; and do not fancy that I am not interested and amused too, because my laughing muscles are a little stiff from want of use. Perhaps, too, I am apt to take things too much _au grand sérieux;_ but I could not help thinking, while you were speaking, how sad it was that people were utterly ignorant of matters so vitally necessary to health.
gpt
And I, perhaps, ought not to jest over the subject: but, indeed, with cholera staring us in the face here, I must indulge in some emotion; and as it is unprofessional to weep, I must laugh as long as I dare.
human
A thousand pardons; but--did I hear you aright? cholera staring us in the face?
gpt
How can it be otherwise? It is drawing steadily on from the eastward week by week; and, in the present state of the town, nothing but some miraculous caprice of Dame Fortune's can deliver us.
human
Don't talk of Fortune, sir! at such a moment. Talk of God! said the Major, rising from his chair, and pacing the room.
gpt
It is too horrible! Intolerable! When do you expect it here?
human
Within the month, perhaps,--hardly before. I should have warned you of the danger, I assure you, had I not understood from you that you were only going to stay a fortnight.
gpt
Do you fancy that I am afraid for myself? No; but the thought of its coming to--to the poor people in the town, you know. It is too dreadful. I have seen it in India--among my own men--among the natives. Good heavens, I never shall forget--and to meet the fiend again here, of all places in the world! I fancied it so clean and healthy, swept by fresh sea-breezes.
human
And by nothing else. A half-hour's walk round would convince you, sir; I only wish that you could persuade his lordship to accompany you.
gpt
Scoutbush? Of course he will,--he shall,--he must. Good heavens! whose concern is it more than his? You think, then, that there is a chance of staving it off--by cleansing, I mean?
human
If we have heavy rains during the next week or two, yes. If this drought last, better leave ill alone; we shall only provoke the devil by stirring him up.
gpt
You speak confidently, said the Major, gradually regaining his own self-possession, as he saw Tom so self-possessed.
human
Have you--allow me to ask so important a question--have you seen much of cholera?
gpt
I have worked through three. At Paris, at St. Petersburgh, and in the West Indies: and I have been thinking up my old experience for the last six weeks, foreseeing what would come.
human
I am satisfied, sir; perhaps I ought to ask your pardon for the question.
gpt
Not at all. How can you trust a man, unless you know him?
human
And you expect it within the month? You shall go with me to Lord Scoutbush to-morrow, and--and now we will talk of something more pleasant.