The doctor, who was wise in the strange maladies of the West Coast, stayed for two days, and promised to return once a week.

He left full instructions, and particularly impressed upon the two nurses the fact that the recovery would necessarily be so slow that their unpractised eyes could hardly expect to trace its progress.
It is just possible that Meredith could at this time have had no better nurse than Joseph.

There was a military discipline about the man's method which was worth more than much feminine persuasion.
"Beef tea, sir," he would announce with a face of wood, for the sixth time in one day.
"What, again?
No, hang it! I can't." "Them's my orders, sir," was Joseph's invariable reply, and he was usually in a position to produce documentary confirmation of his statement.

The two men--master and servant--had grown so accustomed to the military discipline of a besieged garrison that it did not seem to occur to them to question the doctor's orders.
Nestorius--small, stout, and silent--was a frequenter of the sick-room, by desire of the invalid.

After laboriously toiling up the shallow stairs--a work entailing huge effort of limbs and chin--he would stump gravely into the room without any form of salutation.