Every Day He Threatened To Withdraw
His Custom; Every Day He Sent For The Landlady, Pointed Out To Her
How Vilely He Was Treated, And Asked How She Could Expect Him To
Recommend The Concordia To His Acquaintances.
On one occasion I
saw him push away a plate of something, plant his elbows on the
table, and hide his face in his hands; thus he sat for ten minutes,
an image of indignant misery, and when at last his countenance was
again visible, it showed traces of tears.
I dwell upon the question of food because it was on this day that I
began to feel a loss of appetite and found myself disgusted with the
dishes set before me. In ordinary health I have the happiest
qualification of the traveller, an ability to eat and enjoy the
familiar dishes of any quasi-civilized country; it was a bad sign
when I grew fastidious. After a mere pretence of dinner, I lay down
in my room to rest and read. But I could do neither; it grew plain
to me that I was feverish. Through a sleepless night, the fever
manifestly increasing, I wished that illness had fallen on me
anywhere rather than at Cotrone.
CHAPTER IX
MY FRIEND THE DOCTOR
In the morning I arose as usual, though with difficulty. I tried to
persuade myself that I was merely suffering from a violent attack of
dyspepsia, the natural result of Concordia diet. When the waiter
brought my breakfast I regarded it with resentful eye, feeling for
the moment very much like my grumbling acquaintance of the dinner
hour.
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