"I didn't want any."
"You can't go out o' town that way," said Clam. "The Governor desired you would take some breakfast, and his orders must be follered. You can't drink cold coffee neither —"
And away went Clam, coffee-pot in hand.
In so short a space of time that it shewed Clam's business faculties, she was back again with the coffee smoking hot. She made a cup carefully and brought it to her mistress.
"You can't do nothin' without it," said Clam. "Mr. Winthrop would say, 'Drink it' if he was here —"
Which Elizabeth knew, and perhaps considered in swallowing the coffee. Before she had done, Clam stood at her couch again with a plate of more substantial supports.
"He would say 'Eat,' if he was here —" she remarked.
"Attend a little to what I have to say," said her mistress.
"While you're eatin'," said Clam. "I wasn't to stop to get breakfast."
A few words of directions were despatched, and Clam was off again; and Elizabeth lay still and looked at the strange room and thought over the strange meaning and significance of her being there. A moment's harbour, with a moment's friend. She was shiveringly alone in the world; she felt very much at a loss what to do, or what would become of her, She felt it, but she could not think about it. Tears came again for a long uninterrupted time.