I dare say that will do you good." She poured water into a basin from a kettle on the hob, and dipping the corner of a towel in it, brought it to him.

He tried to use it, but his hands obeyed him so ill that she took it from him, and herself wiped with it his face and hands, and then dried them--so gently, so softly, he thought that must be how his mother did with him when he was a baby.

All the time, he lay looking up at her with a grateful smile.

She then set about preparing him some tea and toast, during which he watched her every motion.

When he had had the tea, he fell asleep, and when he woke next he was alone.
An hour or so later, the gardener's wife brought him a basin of soup, and when he had taken it, told him she would then leave him for the night: if he wanted anything, as there was no bell, he must pull the string she tied to the bed-post.