A keeper entered Helen's room, removed the gag, and motioned her to eat.
She shook her head. She could not eat. He then offered her some liquor or wine, but this she also refused.
"You must take something to keep up your strength," the keeper said. "I've got orders to see that you take some wine, and in this establishment orders has got to be obeyed, even if I have to force the stuff down your grub-tube."
He placed a glass of wine to Helen's lips, and when she would not take it—fearing poison—he throttled her, and when she gasped let the wine run down her throat, almost strangling her.
The keeper waited.
Finding that the wine was undrugged, so far as she could tell, and feeling the generous glow it produced, she drank another glass without compelling the keeper to resort to violence.
"Will you eat now?"
"No."
"Ain't you hungry?"
"Not a bit."