Father," she called, "come and tell Mr. Meyer how grateful
we are to him."
Mr. Clifford hobbled out from his hut under the tree, saying:
"I have told him already, dear."
"Yes," answered Jacob, "you have told me; why repeat yourself? I see
that supper is ready. Let us eat, for you must be hungry; afterwards I
have something to tell you."
So they ate, with no great appetite, any of them--indeed Meyer touched
but little food, though he drank a good deal, first of strong black
coffee and afterwards of squareface and water. But on Benita he pressed
the choicest morsels that he could find, eyeing her all the while, and
saying that she must take plenty of nutriment or her beauty would suffer
and her strength wane. Benita bethought her of the fairy tales of her
childhood, in which the ogre fed up the princess whom he purposed to
devour.
"You should think of your own strength, Mr. Meyer," she said; "you
cannot live on coffee and squareface."
"It is all I need to-night. I am astonishingly well since you came back.
I can never remember feeling so well, or so strong. I can do the work
of three men, and not be tired; all this afternoon, for instance, I have
been carrying provisions and other things up that steep wall, for we
must prepare for a long siege together; yet I should never know that
I had lifted a single basket.
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