“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.”
“But,” the young man cried, in despair, “I am to be married a month from now.”
“That is impossible.”
“But I cannot do any differently. The contract is ready! The banns have been published! I have given my word!”
“Well, you are a great one!” the doctor laughed. “Just now you were looking for your revolver! Now you want to be married within the month.”
“But, Doctor, it is necessary!”
“But I forbid it.”
“As soon as I knew that the disease is not what I imagined, and that I could be cured, naturally I didn’t want to commit suicide. And as soon as I make up my mind not to commit suicide, I have to take up my regular life. I have to keep my engagements; I have to get married.”