`` He thinks it 's the smallpox . Have you sent word to Victoria ? '' `` Yes , Jim Blewett drove into town and told her . She 'll stay with her sister till it is over . Of course it 's the best thing for her to do . She 's terribly frightened . '' Eunice 's lip curled contemptuously . To her , a wife who could desert her husband , no matter what disease he had , was an incomprehensible creature . But it was better so ; she would have Christopher all to herself . The night was long and wearisome , but the morning came all too soon for the dread certainty it brought . The doctor pronounced the case smallpox . Eunice had hoped against hope , but now , knowing the worst , she was very calm and resolute . By noon the fateful yellow flag was flying over the house , and all arrangements had been made . Caroline was to do the necessary cooking , and Charles was to bring the food and leave it in the yard . Old Giles Blewett was to come every day and attend to the stock , as well as help Eunice with the sick man ; and the long , hard fight with death began . It was a hard fight , indeed . Christopher Holland , in the clutches of the loathsome disease , was an object from which his nearest and dearest might have been pardoned for shrinking . But Eunice never faltered ; she never left her post . Sometimes she dozed in a chair by the bed , but she never lay down . Her endurance was something wonderful , her patience and tenderness almost superhuman .
To and fro she went , in noiseless ministry , as the long , dreadful days wore away , with a quiet smile on her lips , and in her dark , sorrowful eyes the rapt look XXXXX a pictured saint in some dim cathedral niche .
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