Sometimes at the Black Eagle she had a cup when her work was done, but to Gretchen the aroma excelled the taste.

Her grandmother's breakfast and her own out of the way, she carried the coffee and bread and a hot brick up to the invalid.

The woman gave her two crowns a week to serve this morning meal.

Gretchen would have cheerfully done the work for nothing.
What the character of the woman's illness was Gretchen hadn't an idea, but there could be no doubt that she was ill, desperately, had the goose-girl but known it.

Her face was thin and the bones were visible under the drum-like skin; her hands were merely claws.