Personally I think I can hold out a little longer.

I had an excellent breakfast this m----, the day we came here.

But if I felt a sinking----" "_Waugh!_" said Mrs.Portheris.
"Have you--have you _begun_ ?" I exclaimed in agony, while Dicky shook in silence.
"I have," replied Mrs.Portheris hurriedly; "where--where is the eucalyptus?
Ah! I have it!" "_Ben-en-euh!_ It is nutritive, I am sure, but it requires a cordial." The darkness for some reason seemed a little less black and the silence less oppressive.
"I have only eaten about three inches," remarked Mrs.Portheris presently.

Dicky and I were incapable of conversation--"but I--but I cannot go on at present.

It is really not nice." "An overdone flavour, hasn't it ?" asked Dicky, between gasps.
"Very much so! Horribly! But the eucalyptus will, I hope, enable me to extract some benefit from it.