But she refused, declaring that her head ached, which, although true, was not the real reason by any means.
"I am afraid you have been working too hard this week," he said kindly.

"I have been very much in the same plight myself, or I would have come up to help you.

Can you save things back for a few days?
As soon as the steamer has gone I shall be quite at leisure, and will put in a day or two at helping you to get your stores stowed away." "It has been hard work, and of course we are to a certain extent novices at it," Katherine answered.

"But the worst is over now until the next boat comes, when I suppose the confusion will begin all over again, only of course by then we shall be more used to managing things." "You had better go to bed early and get a good night's rest, or I shall be having you for a patient next, and I am very much afraid you would not prove a tractable one," he said, more troubled by her pale cheeks and weary looks than he cared to confess.
"I have never been ill in my life, so I have no idea how the role of invalid would suit me," she answered with a mirthless laugh, thinking how very pleasant a stroll in the woods would have been after her long, hard day of work in the stockrooms.
"I don't think it would suit you at all," he replied.

Then he said, as he rose to go: "As you are not inclined for a walk, I will go and have a talk with Mr.Selincourt about the plans for the fish-curing sheds." Standing aside was dismal work, Katherine told herself; and there were tears on her pillow when she went to sleep that night..