If it is a sacrifice, it is a sacrifice for those you love.

Oh, David, my David, it is such a little thing I ask--just for us to be a few months longer together.

I know how you hated going abroad, and I would not have pressed it for worlds; but Ventnor--oh, David, you cannot have the heart to refuse me!" And Elizabeth broke down utterly and hid her face in her hands.
Perhaps it was as well that she did not see David's expression that moment; as he lay back upon his pillows his face was deathly.

Why did they ask this of him?
He was just growing more resigned and peaceful.
Those agonised prayers of his for aid and succour had been answered, and the deep blessedness of an accepted cross seemed to fill his soul with a strange calm.

He must die, and he knew it; but his Heavenly Father had been merciful to him, and death had lost its terrors; and now his longing was to die in the village he had chosen as his home, and under the shadow of the church where he had ministered as God's priest.
He knew where they would lay him: he and Elizabeth had chosen his last resting-place, and she had listened dry-eyed to his simple directions and wishes.