"I
cannot prevent you," was the Doctor's reply, "but I am obliged to
point out that you act on your own responsibility. It is
_pericoloso_, it is _pericolosissimo_! The terrible climate of the
mountains!" However, I won his permission to leave the house, and
acted upon it that same afternoon. Shaking and palpitating, I slowly
descended the stairs to the colonnade; then, with a step like that
of an old, old man, tottered across the piazza, my object being to
reach the chemist's shop, where I wished to pay for the drugs that I
had had and for the tea. When I entered, sweat was streaming from my
forehead; I dropped into a chair, and for a minute or two could do
nothing but recover nerve and breath. Never in my life had I
suffered such a wretched sense of feebleness. The pharmacist looked
at me with gravely compassionate eyes; when I told him I was the
Englishman who had been ill, and that I wanted to leave to-morrow
for Catanzaro, his compassion indulged itself more freely, and I
could see quite well that he thought my plan of travel visionary.
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