He drank and then he began calling out for Margery.
"Why isn't she here? Where's her place but here? Curse the dogs. Aren't my sufferings more than all the dogs? There's a bit of flint in every woman's heart, and we married men are sure to bruise ourselves upon it soon or late. But I'd never have thought—— To put the blasted dogs before me!"
"She's working for you. She's gone for the doctor, because you're ill."
"The doctor liked her—Briggs, he liked her; but he hated me. I won't have him. He'd kill me."
"She's gone for Cousins—he's all right. He mended your leg, you mind."
Jacob sank into silence presently and the cuckoo clock below struck ten.
"Who's that calling, 'Margery,' 'Margery'? Who is it, William? Not Winter—not Adam Winter now I'm here powerless? I'll strangle him—God judge me—I'll strangle him with these hands so soon as my nature comes back to me!"
"He's all right. 'Tis only the cuckoo clock."
"I've often been tempted to crush it under my feet, William, when it jeered at me in the night season. I've laid awake and heard its cursed note—foul—foul—lecherous—and I've been hard put to it to remain in bed. But it was hers, and I respect all that is hers, though she doesn't respect all that is mine."
"The cuckoo bird means spring. Spring will soon be here, and I shall often ride up over to have a tell, Jacob."