Half Loaves by Margaret Culkin Banning

In January Cecily found her hands extremely full.

Ellen had an unexpected call to take care of a sick relative -- she did not tell Cecily that it was Mrs. Horton -- on whom tragedy in the form of cancer had descended. She would not consent to an operation and Ellen's duty was partly to take care of her, partly to reassure her, partly to keep her from answering patent medicine advertisements which "guaranteed to cure without the use of a knife. " Mr. Horton had come for Ellen, not daring to risk the telephone in his wife's presence and at sight of the helplessness of the sagged figure at the kitchen door Ellen was bound to help. She said she would come for a month and by that time they could find a nurse. It was obvious enough that the sick woman was more important than Cecily's household, but Ellen was none the less distressed. She left a sour-faced Swedish woman and an increasingly pert Jenny to take care of the Harrisons and went on her errand of mercy, pulled backward and forward. Cecily had tried to be as kind as possible, but she had urged Ellen to come back as soon as she could.