"Healthy children?"

"I repeat it to you; if you take care of yourself properly for a
long time, conscientiously, you have little to fear."

"That's certain?"

"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred."

George felt as if he had suddenly emerged from a dungeon. "Why,
then," he exclaimed, "I shall be able to marry!"

"You will be able to marry," was the reply.

"You are not deceiving me? You would not give me that hope, you
would not expose me? How soon will I be able to marry?"

"In three or four years," said the doctor.

"What!" cried George in consternation. "In three or four years?
Not before?"

"Not before."

"How is that? Am I going to be sick all that time? Why, you
told me just now--"

Said the doctor: "The disease will no longer be dangerous to
you, yourself--but you will be dangerous to others."