Step by step, as a child could, I
followed it out. And the balance of the golden rule, to which
I was accustomed, is an easy one to weigh things in; and even
little hands can manage it.
For an hour after they put me to bed my heart seemed to grow
chill from minute to minute; and my body, in curious sympathy,
shook as if I had an ague. My aunt and Miss Pinshon came and
went and were busy about me; making me drink negus and putting
hot bricks to my feet. Preston stole in to look at me; but I
gathered that neither then nor afterwards did he reveal to any
one the matter of our conversation the hour before. "Wearied"
— "homesick" — "feeble" — "with no sort of strength to bear
anything" — they said I was. All true, no doubt; and yet I was
not without powers of endurance, even bodily, if my mind gave
a little help. Now the trouble was, that all such help was
wanting. The dark figures of the servants came and went too,
with the others; came and stayed; Margaret and Mammy Theresa
took post in my room, and when they could do nothing for me,
crouched by the fire and spent their cares and energies in
keeping that in full blast.
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