But one thing is clear: she is wasting; she is losing ground instead of going ahead.

There's a malignant influence working.

She's standing still, and to stand still in youth is fatal.

I can imagine you don't want to lose her, eh ?" The Young Doctor's gray-blue eyes endeavoured to hold the blinking beads under the shaggy eyebrows long enough to get control of a mind which had the cunning and cruelty of an animal.

He succeeded.
The old man would a thousand times rather his wife lived than died.