“Won’t you eat it?” Madame Paulus asked.
“Not to-day.”
“Why not to-day?” she cried, and then—noticing Hill’s breakfast and lunch standing untouched on the table by his bed, “Oh! Why haven’t you eaten your food?”
“It is wicked to eat much,” said Hill, “I am fasting to-day.”
“Oh, dear! dear! When will you eat it?”
“When I have done fasting,” Hill sighed.
“When will that be?”
“After forty days,” said Hill, very mournfully. “Jesus used to fast for forty days.”
With a little gesture of despair Madame Paulus turned to me.
“May I write to your relatives?” she asked. “They would like to know how you are.”