There fell a silence of several seconds; then at length with another great puff of smoke he spoke. "Guess it's just a case for patience, Jake, my lad. These things right 'emselves, you know, when the time comes. It's wonderful how childbearing softens a woman. And you love her. That'll make a difference too--when the time comes."
Jake did not look up. "God knows I do," he said slowly. "But you know, Doc--" he seemed to be speaking with something of an effort--"I don't fancy she knows it."
"Oh, shucks!" Capper exclaimed. "She wouldn't be a woman if she didn't."
Jake shook his head despondently. "I suppose I'm just a brute beast. She thinks so, and I can't show her anything different now. Maybe I am more flesh than spirit; but for all that she is the one woman I want, and none other could ever satisfy me now. But I haven't got her. Even when I hold her in my arms, she ain't there. And she has never kissed me, never once."
Again he ceased to speak, and Capper pulled at his beard and said nothing.
There fell a long silence between them through which the grandfather clock in the corner ticked with a melancholy beat. It was like the heart of a tired man.
Jake's cigarette hung neglected between his fingers which almost trailed on the floor. His eyes still stared before him as though they saw one thing, and only one.
Capper smoked with scarcely a pause. His yellow face was very thoughtful His cigarette came to an end, and he dropped it smouldering on to a plate. Then he turned and laid a kindly hand upon Jake's shoulder.
"Keep a stiff upper lip, my son! I guess she's yours for the winning, or she will be. It's no good trying to understand a woman's moods. You never will do that as long as you live. But she'll come to you in the end, sure. Give her all the rope you can! If she hasn't any use for you at present, it'll come."
"Will it?" said Jake rather bitterly. "I reckon I'm further away from winning her now than I've ever been. Once--it's ages ago--she came to me and cried out her troubles on my shoulder. She'd no more dream of doing that now than she'd dream of flying. She'd be more likely to--" He broke off short.