about ...
black lice ... they are coming in swarms ... Janet! come and take them
away ... curse you! why don't you come? Janet!'

Poor Janet was kneeling by the bed with her face buried in her hands. She
almost wished her worst moment back again rather than this. It seemed as
if her husband was already imprisoned in misery, and she could not reach
him--his ear deaf for ever to the sounds of love and forgiveness. His
sins had made a hard crust round his soul; her pitying voice could not
pierce it.

'Not there, isn't she?' he went on in a defiant tone. 'Why do you ask me
where she is? I'll have every drop of yellow blood out of your veins if
you come questioning me. Your blood is yellow ... in your purse ...
running out of your purse ... What! you're changing it into toads, are
you? They're crawling ... they're flying ... they're flying about my head
... the toads are flying about. Ostler! ostler! bring out my gig ...
bring it out, you lazy beast . . . ha! you'll follow me, will you? ...
you'll fly about my head ... you've got fiery tongues ... Ostler! curse
you! why don't you come? Janet! come and take the toads away ... Janet!'

This last time he uttered her name with such a shriek of terror, that
Janet involuntarily started up from her knees, and stood as if petrified
by the horrible vibration. Dempster stared wildly in silence for some
months; then he spoke again in a hoarse whisper:--'Dead ... is she dead?
She did it, then. She buried herself in the iron chest ... she left her
clothes out, though ... she isn't dead ... why do you pretend she's dead?
... she's coming ... she's coming out of the iron closet ... there are
the black serpents ... stop her ... let me go ... stop her ... she wants
to drag me away into the cold black water ... her bosom is black ... it
is all serpents ... they are getting longer ... the great white serpents
are getting longer ...'

Here Mr. Pilgrim came forward with the apparatus to bind him, but
Dempster's struggles became more and more violent. 'Ostler! ostler!' he
shouted, 'bring out the gig ... give me the whip!'--and bursting loose
from the strong hands that held him, he began to flog the bed-clothes
furiously with his right arm.

'Get along, you lame brute!--sc--sc--sc! that's it! there you go! They
think they've outwitted me, do they? The sneaking idiots! I'll be up with
them by-and-by. I'll make them say the Lord's Prayer backwards ... I'll
pepper them so that the devil shall ea