All he cared now to say was that he trusted to
his doctor to keep everybody out of the house; that I was not to be
called away from Dora, and that it was all his own fault.
One person could not be kept away, and that was Dermot Tracy. He
came over to spend the Sunday with his friend, and finding the door
closed, and Richardson giving warning of smallpox, only made him the
more eagerly run upstairs. George could by that time ill dispense
with a strong man's help, and after vaccinating him, admitted him to
the room, where the checking of the eruption had already produced
terrible fever and violent raving.
It was a very remarkable delirium, as the three faithful watchers
described it. The mind and senses seemed astray, only not the will.
It was as if all the vices of his past life came in turn to assail
him, and he was writhing and struggling under their attacks, yet not
surrendering himself. When--the Sunday duties over--Ben Yolland came
in, he found him apparently acting over some of the wild scenes of
his early youth, with shreds of the dreadful mirth, and evil words of
profane revelry; and yet, as if they struck his ears, he would catch
himself up and strike his fist on his mouth, and when Ben entered, he
stretched out his arms and said, "Don't let me." Prayer soothed him
for a short interval, but just as they hoped that sleep might come,
the fierce struggle with oppression brought back the old habits of
violent language, and then the distressed endeavour to check himself,
and the clutch at the clergyman's aid.
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