And hopes are strong and will prevail.
My calmest fate escapes not pain;
And, feeling that the hope is vain,
I think that he will come again.—Wordsworth.
At daylight Pina awoke. Finding her mistress still sleeping heavily under the influence of the sedative, she arose and replenished the fire and then went down stairs and got her own breakfast.
After which she prepared some very strong coffee and some delicate milk toast, and took it up to the lady’s chamber and set it upon the hearth to be kept warm until her mistress should awake.
But with the hapless young wife the awakening was but the return to anguish.
With great difficulty Pina prevailed on her to take a little food. There was but one argument the girl could successfully use with the expectant mother—her child. To keep up her strength for its sake, Drusilla tried to eat and drink, though even the coffee and the soft toast seemed to choke her in her effort to swallow them.
After this little repast she fell back upon her pillow, too spirit-broken to wish to leave her bed.
Pina opened the front windows to let in the cheerful light of the golden autumn morning; and then she took the breakfast tray down into the kitchen.