All at once Cristina crept up close to her—it was such a quick, stealthy movement that it startled Lily.
“Listen,” said the old woman. “Listen, Mademoiselle! You must insist on having enough to eat! You are paying one hundred and twenty-five francs a week. I know it; for the Countess had to tell me. So do not let her starve you!”
“Oh, I’m sure she wouldn’t do that!” said Lily.
She smiled, but deep in her heart she was grateful to old Cristina. “What am I to say?” she whispered back.
“You are to say that you must have two eggs and two cutlets every day—also two large glassfuls of milk,” said Cristina quickly.
“But surely there will be plenty of food when Count Beppo arrives?” said Lily.
Cristina shook her head. “The young Count is not coming till after New Year,” she said.
“Oh yes, he is! The Countess told us at luncheon that she had heard from him to-day, and that he was coming very much sooner—perhaps in a week or ten days.”
Cristina looked extremely surprised. Then she said suddenly: “Even so, speak to-day, Mademoiselle. Why be short of food for ten days?”
A dozen questions sprang to the girl’s lips. But she did not wish to discuss her host and hostess with even the most trusted and best-liked servant. Even so, she made up her mind to take Cristina’s advice, and to tell Aunt Cosy courteously but firmly that she had been used at home to good plain food, and, further, that the doctor had said she required feeding up.