The Forsyte Saga - Complete

had died of disease in the service of his country, and not be able to feel it personally. It revived the old grudge against his father for having estranged himself. For such was

if he were killed in battle or got the Victoria Cross, it would not be at all the same as if his name were F

Possibly some eye had seen 'Forsyte v. Forsyte and Forsyte,' in the cause list; and had added it to 'Irene in Paris with a fair beard.' Possibly some wal

t each of the four other Forsytes present held their breath, aware that nothing could prevent Aunt Juley from making them all uncomfortable. She looked so piteously at Soames, she checked herself on the point of speech so often,

ld retire, live privately, go on buying pictures, make a great name as a collector-after all, his heart was more in that than it had ever been in Law. In pursuance of this now fixed resolve, he had to get ready to amalgamate his business with another firm without letting people know, for that would excite curiosity and make humiliation cast its shadow before. He had pitched on the firm of Cuthcott, Holliday and Kingson, two of whom we

death, which could not, alas, be delayed much longer, he must come into at least another fifty thousand, and his yearly expenditure at present just reached two. Standing among his pictures, he saw before him a future full of bargains earned by the trained faculty of

nt Bretagne at a fancy price. Madame would live like a Queen-Mother in Paris on the interest, invested as she would know how. (Incidentally Soames meant to put a capable manager in her place, and make the restaurant pa

es, their deaths. And during these weeks of waiting and preparing to drop the Law, he conceived for that Law a bitter distaste, so deeply did he resent its coming violation of his name, forced on him by the need he felt to perpetuate that name in a lawful manner. The monstrous injustice of the whole thing excited in him a perpetual suppressed fury. He had asked no better than to live in spotless domesticity, and now he must go into the witness box, after all these futile, barren years, and proclaim his failure to keep his wife-incur the pity, the amusement, the contempt of his kind. It was all upside down. She and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they-were in Italy! In these weeks the Law he had served so faithfully, looked on so reverently as the guardian of all property, seemed to him quite pitiful. What could be more insane than to tell a man that he owned his wife, and punish him when someone unlawfully took her away from him? Did the Law not know that a man's name was to him the apple of his eye, that it was far harder to be regarded as cuckold than as seducer? He actually envied Jolyon the reputation of succeeding where he, Soames, had failed. The ques

who had been through the mill, and was the 'femme-sole' in whom he confided, well knowing that she would not let Dartie into her confidence. That ruffian would be only too rejoiced! At the end of July, on the afternoon before the case, he we

er with a lett

e asked gloomily.

s married,"

for Goodne

looked

rsyte, Jolyo

ha

I didn't even know he kn

t laugh at that chara

bout this till they come back. They'd better s

nifred almost piteously; "I mi

Soames. "How's Da

money. Would you like me to come d

The gesture so betrayed the loneliness i

u'll feel ever so much b

huskily; "I never have. It's all upside d

ooze out of his lip, and the

hall I do about this marriage of Val's, Soames? I don't know how to wr

" said Soames. "Dar

bad,' thought Winifre

she said. "What

war'll soon be over now, you'd bett

to saying that h

onty," Winifred m

ames-pale, spruce, sad-eyed in the witness-box-had suffered so much beforehand that he took

amn them all!' he thought; 'I won't run away. I'll act as if nothing had happened.' And in the sweltering heat of Fleet Street and Ludg

ul's, he stopped to buy the most gentlemanly of the evening papers. Yes! there he was! 'Well-known solicitor's divorce. Cousin co-respondent. Damages given to the

would be ill. He mustn't think! He would get down to the river an

adame Lamotte! He must explain the Law. Another six months before he was really free! Only he

sm. Alone, the Restaurant Bretagne, neat, daintily painted, with its blue tubs and the dwarf trees therein, retained an aloof and Frenchified self-respect. It was the slack hour, and pale trim wa

a stranger," sh

es s

shed to be; I

r, Annette? I've go

r is n

her? The worry of trying to make that out gave him an alarming feeling in the head. He gripped the edge o

think." The sun! What he had was a touch of 'dar

into a chair. When the dark feeling dispersed, and he opened his eyes, she was

feel b

age was enough handicap without that. Will-power was his fortune with Annette, he had lost groun

se for a long holiday. I want you both to come there prese

little roll of that 'r' but no ent

do you good to be on the river. Good-night." Annette swaye

go? Shall I give

es firmly. "Giv

oked up, her face wore again that strange expression. 'I can't tell

social position, leisure, admiration! It was much, but was it enough for a beautiful girl of twenty? He felt so ignorant about Annette. He had, too, a curious fear

to Madame Lamotte when he reached his Club warned hi

MADAME

r, be free to marry again till the decree is confirmed six months hence. In the meanwhile I have the honor to ask to be considered

dear

erely

ES FO

cab to be summoned, he drove to Paddington Station and took the first train to Reading. He reached his house just as the sun went down, and wand

eeping on their dovecot, like the furry creatures in the woods on the far side, and the simple folk in their cottages, like the trees and the r