“Then I will relieve you by saying that I didn’t make it expressly for you. Papa and I had it for dinner, and papa seemed to relish it amazingly. I don’t know when he has eaten so hearty a dinner.”
“I am glad of that. I think I shall like it, too. The smell of it quite revives me. I will get up immediately.”
“No, you shall stay where you are. Wait a moment and I will bring back a pillow from our room. Then I can prop you up in bed, and you shall eat in bed as the French do. Really, Martha, you are getting to be quite a fashionable lady.”
Martha’s sickness had been the result in part of a lack of proper food. The chicken-broth was relished as much as Helen could desire.
“I knew you would like it, Martha. Why, you are beginning to look better already.”
“I think I shall be able to go to work to-morrow.”
“Not to-morrow, nor this week. It will take you at least a week to recover.”
“But, Helen——”
“That is the third time you have said ‘But, Helen.’ Do you know, you unreasonable creature, that I allow no disobedience? I have undertaken to cure you, and I mustn’t have you interfering.”
“But it will not take a week for me to get well.”