The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy

e dining-room, facing the Park, t

of beauty so deeply implanted in each family which has had its own way to make into Society, out of the more vulgar heart of Nature. Swithin had indeed an impatience of simplicity, a love of ormolu, which had always stamped him amongst his associates as a man o

in his estimation, especially as to its auctioneering departm

ning till night, was the junction of two curiously opposite emotions, a lingering and sturdy satisfaction that he had made his

hurt him to move-he would on no account have had altered, the pale flesh of his under chin remained immovable. His eyes roved from bottle to bottle. He was debating, and he argued like this: Jolyon drinks a glass, perhaps t

! June was only a girl, in love too! Emily (Mrs. James) liked a good glass of champagne. It was too dry for Juley, poor old soul, she had no palate. As to Hatty

purr stole over his old face: Mrs. Soames! She mightn't take much, but she would appreciate

d so well, who knew how to dress, with charming manners, quite distinguished-a pleasure to entertain he

id. "Put in an

e found himself extremely well, and he had been careful to take no lunch. He had no

h of the West India wh

y. He was ready to rise at a moment's notice. He had not given a dinner-party for months. This dinner in honour of June's engagement had seemed a bore at first (among Forsyte

t, and smooth, and golden, like a flatten

once been in Swithin's service, but was

an, Mrs. Sep

ttled patches of the same colour in her cheeks, and a hard, dashing eye. She

id, "I haven't seen you

oy, how stout

ed his bosom. It was vulgar to be stout, to talk of being stout; he had a chest, not

l, J

r it, as if it had been encased in an iron wire mask up to that evening, which, being suddenly removed, left little rolls of mutinous flesh

ease of her husband the family tenacity, the family matter-of-factness, had gone sterile within her. A great talker, when allowed, she would converse without the faintest animation for hours

of that extremely witty preacher, the Rev. Thomas Scoles, who exercised a great influence over her; but she succeeded in convincing everybody that even this was a misfortune. She had passed into a proverb in the family, and when anybody was observed to be peculiarly distressing, he was known as a regular 'Juley.' The habit of her mind would have killed anybody but a Forsyte at forty; but she was seventy-two, an

n a shy triangle, and crowned with a black velvet ribbon round the base of her thin th

t Swithin

or you. You haven't be

ithin the armholes of hi

y shaky; she ought

rs. Nichol

carried at last in the teeth of great difficulties-he was justly pleased. It would double the output of his mines, and, as he had often forcibly argued, all experience tended to show that a man must die; and whether h

aising his broken nose towar

n't paid a dividend for years, and look at the pric

that he had added at least ten years to his own life.

here we

an, smiled a smile of fright

Forsyte! Mr. and M

s together, his depor

mily! How are you, S

was a pretty woman-a little too pale, but her figur

men's glances, which is said to be the mark of a weak character. And the full, soft pallor of her

which he still held open in his hand, had left eight behind; it was half an hour beyond h

id to Irene, with uncontrollable vexatio

are always lat

her; a dusky orang

ss to be. Some fas

culate violence of primitive genera

of my new star, Uncle Sw

eleven diamonds. Swithin looked at the star. He had a pretty taste in stones; no

you that?"

ame

hin's pale eyes bulged as though he might

y you like to come and dine with me, I'll give you

r. Jolyon Forsyte!..

arm, and said in

, now-d

ground that he had not

he portion of Bosinney,

On the other side of

n with Mrs. James, Nicho

l, completing, the ci

nger members traces it to the disgraceful price of oysters; it is more probably due to a desire to come to the point, to a good practical sense deciding a

s such as, "Tom's bad again; I can't tell what's the matter with him!" "I suppose Ann doesn't come down in the mornings?"-"What's the name of your doctor, Fanny?" "S

esolved into its primal element, is found to be James telling a story, and this goes on for a long time, encroaching s

ch makes it suitable to people 'of a certain position.' It is nourishing and tasty; the sort of thing a man remember

Roger, the 'original' of the brothers, he had been obliged to invent a locality of his own, and with an ingenuity worthy of a man who had devised a new profession for his sons, he had discovered a shop where they sold German; on bei

cranky lot, the Forsytes-and you'

ugh he ate saddle of mutton heart

oes it illustrate their tenacity, both collectively and as individuals, but it marks them as belonging in fibre and in

aled to the imagination, and had less nourishment-but these were females; or, if not, had been corrupted by their wives, or by mothers, who ha

least touch of West Indian-Swithin was so long over this course that he caused a block in the

bserving Bosinney. The architect might do for his purpose; he looked clever, as he sat leaning back in his chair, moodily making

as he often saw it sparkle at other people-never at himself. He

r what," he had said, "shall it profit a man if he gain his own soul, but lose all his property?" That, he had said, was the motto of the m

g round the table, as if pointing out the peculiarities of the guests, and Soames wondered what he was sayin

Soames dropped his glance at once

Mr. Scoles was a humbug, a clergyman-

o they are!"

ence he caught some words of Irene's that sound

had finish

voice like a courtier's; "you ought to go to Smileybob's-he'll g

imple arrangement, like a child who smiles when he is pleased. As for George's nickname-'The Buccaneer'-he did not think much of

she had just held the follo

ay home, Uncle James, and saw

ugh eater, stopped the

d. "Now, whe

to Pang

e of ham in his mou

there was freehold?" he asked at last. "You wouldn't

er little resolute face under its coppe

er with the air

g of buying land!" he eja

long been her pet plan that her uncles should benefi

t would be such a splendid place for-yo

ys, and placed a second pi

e very dear abou

y Forsyte who hears of something eligible in danger of passing into other hands. But

le James. I wish I had a lot of money,

is long thin figure; he had no idea

ountry?" repeated June; "it

good d'you suppose I can do buying land, building h

matter? You'd

d James; "what should

body liked to have fresh a

s napkin all o

alue of money," he sa

, biting her lip with inexpressible

so selfish. Why couldn't they build country-houses? She had all that naive dogmatism which is so pathetic, and sometimes achieves such great results. Bosinney, to whom

his girls would have said such a thing. James had always been exceedingly liberal to his children, and the consciousness of this made him feel it all t

in calculations as to the exact pecuniary possibilities of all the relations of life, he had come at last to think purely in terms of money. Money was now his light, his medium for seeing, that without which he was really unable to see, really not cognisant of phenomena; and to have this thing, "I hope I shall never know the value of money!" said to his face,

d, and family stock priced. It was known on Forsyte 'Change that Irene regretted her marriage. Her reg

he must be getting a very warm man. He had a capital income from the business-for Soames, like his father, was a member of that well-known firm of solicitors, Forsyte, Bu

t they said she'd been asking for a separate room. He

is? It was very likely all nonsense; women were funny things! They exaggerated so, you didn't know what to believe; and then, nobody told him anything, he had to find out everythin

ought James. 'Look at the way

ableness of her disaffection s

e; that was doing her no good, that was certainly doing her no good. She was getting to have opinions of her own. He didn't know what she wanted with anyth

cessity of facing the evil, by separation, if need be. But in the face of these exhortations, Irene had kept a brooding silence, as t

o it!" And she had not scrupled to say something of this sort at Timothy'

s happening so close to him, to one of his own children! Luckily, she had no money-a beggarly fifty pound a year! And he thought of the deceased Heron, who had had nothing to leave her, with contempt. Brooding over his glass, his long legs twisted under the table, he quite omi

l,' he mused; 'Irene'd never have thought of

thin roused him

r it," he was saying. "Of cour

hat's a lot of money!

he subsidiary figures, of which there were six, female, nude, and of highly ornate workmanship, were all pointing towards the central figure, also nude, and female, who was pointing a

t was he who had st

ks! Don't tell me you ga

thin's chin made the second painful

a farthing less. I don't regret it. It's not

er of his lip in a smi

was grinning behind th

looked more li

ames hastily, who was really moved by the si

within, "asked me five hundred-I gave him four. It

r to me how they live. Now, there's young Flageoletti, that Fanny and the girls are always

"Ah!" he said, "I don'

gar in mouth, went to inspect

en two for it!" he

each other anxiously; and, on the other side

that this group was hopelessly vieux jeu; hopelessly of the last gener

t last. "You never knew

r pictures, an

t he was going to be drawn into an argument with an obstinate beggar like Sw

" was al

ossible for Swithin to start; h

see anything you've got in

o sound again that rumbling vi

who saved t

? You're an architect; you ought to

ney; all waited with a strange,

aking for the f

ney, what d

replied

is a remar

, his eyes smiled slyly at old Joly

able fo

its n

ive silence; Swithin alone was not su