"Poor chap. It is hard. Bob's much set on carrying on. Should you think he could do it, with his mother and the head man?"
"Yes, I think he could. I think very well of him."
"But his father must reign while he lives of course."
"Of course. No need to tell me that."
They talked in desultory fashion for ten minutes longer, then their servant appeared and Jacob locked up and put out the lamps.
He did not immediately follow his wife to bed, but strode up and down the kitchen deep in thought. Once or twice a dog barked from the kennels and he stood to listen. Then he tramped up and down again for a little longer. He had no wish to speak any more and did not go upstairs until he knew Margery would be asleep.
At last, as the clock chimed midnight, he took off his boots and leggings and ascended to his chamber. He listened at his children's doors. The boys, who slept together, were still talking and he looked in and told them to go to sleep. The girls also slept together and he entered and listened. Both slumbered. He bent over Auna's bed and kissed her; but he did not go to the larger bed wherein Avis lay.
CHAPTER IX
THE GIFT
Margery, on her way to the post-office, called upon her brother at the green-grocer's. Jane and he had settled in and Jeremy declared that the future might, at last, be regarded as cloudless.