"Perhaps you haven't been eating enough for lunch. That's a poor way of economizing—unless one has to," suggested the social worker.
"My Government allowance hasn't been coming regularly," explained the soldier.
Allotments and allowances during and after the war were a subject of interest to every soldier. In answer to a few questions, but largely without suggestion, the young man told when the payments had stopped, how much he had received, how long he had been sick, and when he had been disabled.
"So you see, I haven't always been able to afford lunch," he concluded.
"That's probably a good part of your trouble," the social worker replied. "Three hearty meals a day would make you feel differently. I'll have the landlady send up some hot coffee—I'm afraid this is cold—and some toast. And I'll have her arrange a good lunch and dinner for you. Then you'll feel more like yourself. To-morrow you come and see me and we'll try to do something about your compensation."
The next morning the soldier appeared at her office. The talk had been enough to enable him to master, at least for a time, the neurosis from
