Chapter 65: Ellie is very ill
For days, Ellie lay in a tormented fever, unable to speak, to move and scarcely to take any food. Mulhall, devoted and determined to make her better, fed her chicken broth as if she was a baby. It was a nervous collapse, Doctor Hake told them, and Ellie needed rest and peace. She didn't even want to see the children at first and they, poor mites, were puzzled and troubled by their mother's strange withdrawal. They came to the door of her room and wanted to run to her and jump up onto the bed beside her as they had always done but Mulhall guarded the door like an old dragon and shushed them, finger on lips, face serious and stern. They withdrew frightened, feeling abandoned by the one warm, loving, openhearted being of their life. Even Papa was not available now for he spent all his time in the room with Mama and hardly spoke to them.