She began to weep: her mother took her part; and they gave way to her. The evening meal was just as large.
They were approaching Ch'i-Chow, and Ho Chang, who was really alarmed, ordered his boatmen to cast anchor near the town. Early in the morning he sent his steward to find the best doctor, and when the man arrived, brought him on board and explained the case to him. They then went to examine the invalid and to try her pulse. The doctor at length came back with the father into the central cabin.
"Well? What is the illness?"
The other coughed, and at last said:
"Your daughter is suffering from lack of nourishment."
Her father was staggered:
"But I have told you that she ate thirty bowls of rice yesterday."
"Yet, but your daughter is still a child. She is apparently fifteen years old, but that is equivalent to fourteen in reality, or even to thirteen and some months. Her food accumulates in her stomach, but is not assimilated. From this cause arises the fever which burns her stomach and makes her imagine herself to be always hungry. The more she eats, therefore, the more her stomach burns. In one month it will be too late to cure her, and she will die of hunger."
"But how is she to be cured?"
"First, I shall make her digest what she eats. Of course, she must eat very little indeed."