noon
` Yes ! ' I reflected to myself , ` we shall have a fit of illness . I can not conceive what he has been doing . ' That noon he sat down to dinner with us , and received a heaped-up plate from my hands , as if he intended to make amends for previous fasting . ` I 've neither cold nor fever , Nelly , ' he remarked , in allusion to my morning 's speech ; ` and I 'm ready to do justice to the food you give me . ' He took his knife and fork , and was going to commence eating , when the inclination appeared to become suddenly extinct . He laid them on the table , looked eagerly towards the window , then rose and went out .