But the food had lost its flavour for her, and she might have been feeding on the sawdust and pine cones of which Mrs.M'Kree had spoken for all the taste her supper possessed.

She had to talk, however, and to seem cheerful, yet all the time she was shrinking and shivering because of this mysterious mood displayed by her father at the mention of a strange man's name.
'Duke Radford did not come in from the store until it was nearly time for night school, so Katherine saw very little more of him, except at a distance, for that evening; but he was so quiet and absorbed that Mrs.Burton asked more than once if he were feeling unwell.

She even insisted on his taking a basin of onion gruel before he went to bed, because she thought he had caught a chill.
He swallowed the gruel obediently enough, yet knew all the time that the chill was at his heart, where no comforting food nor drink could relieve him..