Swept and Garnished by Rudyard Kipling — Read

When the first waves of feverish cold stole over Frau Ebermann she very / wisely telephoned for the doctor and went to bed. He diagnosed the / attack as mild influenza, prescribed the appropriate remedies, and left / her to the care of her one servant in her comfortable Berlin flat. Frau / Ebermann, beneath the thick coverlet, curled up with what patience she / could until the aspirin should begin to act, and Anna should come back / from the chemist with the formamint, the ammoniated quinine, the / eucalyptus, and the little tin steam-inhaler. Meantime, every bone in / her body ached; her head throbbed; her hot, dry hands would not stay the / same size for a minute together; and her body, tucked into the smallest / possible compass, shrank from the chill of the well-warmed sheets.

Of a sudden she noticed that an imitation-lace cover which should have / lain mathematically square with the imitation-marble top of the radiator / behind the green plush sofa had slipped away so that one corner hung / over the bronze-painted steam pipes. She recalled that she must have / rested her poor head against the radiator-top while she was taking off / her boots. She tried to get up and set the thing straight, but the / radiator at once receded toward the horizon, which, unlike true / horizons, slanted diagonally, exactly parallel with the dropped lace / edge of the cover. Frau Ebermann groaned through sticky lips and / lay still.