He ate it, rolling his eyes around the clean kitchen meanwhile, but not saying a word.
'Tilda Jane kept at a safe distance from him until he had finished and had limped into bed. She then approached the table and ate a few morsels herself, muttering as she did so, "I ain't hungry, but I mus' eat enough to help me square up to that poor ole crossy."
She was, however, too tired to enjoy her supper, and soon leaving it, she washed her dishes and went up-stairs.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
THE TIGER MAKES A SPRING.
The situation would have been absurd if it had not been painful. The next morning the old man was still in the same mood, angry at the girl's invasion of his premises, and yet so appreciative of the value of her energetic ways that he did not insist on her departure. And so day after day, for a whole week, 'Tilda Jane lived on, keeping house for the old man, but saying not one word to him.
He would not speak to her, and she would not begin a conversation with him. She prepared his meals from food that the storekeeper and butcher readily gave her on the old man's account, and exercised her tongue by talking to her dogs.
Occasionally she called on her French neighbours, the Melançons, and from them gleaned various items of information about the eccentric Mr. Dillson, without, however, allowing them to know that he would not speak to her. This secret she proudly kept to herself. She found out from them that the old man was ordinarily in better health than at present,—that he was usually able to hobble about the house and wait on himself, for his temper had of late become so violent that no woman in Ciscasset would enter his house to work for him. Therefore, 'Tilda Jane's arrival had been most opportune, for he would have been in danger of starving to death if left to himself.
Feeling persuaded of this, and greatly pleased to think that she had been and was of service to the father of her benefactor Hank, her attitude toward the old man continued to be one of philosophical and good-natured obstinacy. She would not speak to him, but she was willing to wait on him in silence, looking forward to the time when he would find his tongue.