“The suspense: the fearful, acute suspense: of standing idly by while the life of one we dearly love, is trembling in the balance; the racking thoughts that crowd upon the mind, and make the heart beat violently, and the breath come thick, by the force of the images they conjure up before it; the desperate anxiety to be doing something to relieve the pain, or lessen the danger, which we have no power to alleviate; the sinking of soul and spirit, which the sad remembrance of our helplessness produces; what tortures can equal these; what reflections of endeavours can, in the full tide and fever of the time, allay them!”
More from Charles Dickens
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“There's another fellow, my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family,…”
“I don't know what day of the month it is! I don't know how long I've been among the…”
“Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer.…”