The noiseless Sankey let her in. She would have slipped up to her own room, but old Jolyon, who had heard her entrance, was in the dining-room doorway.
Come in and have your milk, he said. Its been kept hot for you. Youre very late. Where have you been?
June stood at the fireplace, with a foot on the fender and an arm on the mantelpiece, as her grandfather had done when he came in that night of the opera. She was too near a breakdown to care what she told him.
We dined at Soamess.
Hm! the man of property! His wife there and Bosinney?
Yes.
Old Jolyons glance was fixed on her with the penetrating gaze from which it was difficult to hide; but she was not looking at him, and when she turned her face, he dropped his scrutiny at once. He had seen enough, and too much. He bent down to lift the cup of milk for her from the hearth, and, turning away, grumbled: You oughtnt to stay out so late; it makes you fit for nothing.
He was invisible now behind his paper, which he turned with a vicious crackle; but when June came up to kiss him, he said: Good-night, my darling, in a tone so tremulous and unexpected, that it was all the girl could do to get out of the room without breaking into the fit of sobbing which lasted her well on into the night.
When the door was closed, old Jolyon dropped his paper, and stared long and anxiously in front of him.
The beggar! he thought. I always knew shed have trouble with him!
Uneasy doubts and suspicions, the more poignant that he felt himself powerless to check or control the march of events, came crowding upon him.
Was the fellow going to jilt her? He longed to go and say to him: Look here, you sir! Are you going to jilt my grand-daughter? But how could he? Knowing little or nothing, he was yet certain, with his unerring astuteness, that there was something going on. He suspected Bosinney of being too much at Montpellier Square.
This fellow, he thought, may not be a scamp; his face is not a bad one, but hes a queer fish. I dont know what to make of him. I shall never know what to make of him! They tell me he works like a nigger, but I see no good coming of it. Hes unpractical, he has no method. When he comes here, he sits as glum as a monkey. If I ask him what wine hell have, he says: Thanks, any wine. If I offer him a cigar, he smokes it as if it were a twopenny German thing. I never see him looking at June as he ought to look at her; and yet, hes not after her money. If she were to make a sign, hed be off his bargain to-morrow. But she wont not she! Shell stick to him! Shes as obstinate as fate Shell never let go!
Sighing deeply, he turned the paper; in its columns, perchance he might find consolation.
And upstairs in her room June sat at her open window, where the spring wind came, after its revel across the Park, to cool her hot cheeks and burn her heart.
Chapter III
Drive with Swithin
Two lines of a certain song in a certain famous old schools songbook run as follows:
How the buttons on his blue frock shone, tra-la-la! How he carolled and he sang, like a bird!
Swithin did not exactly carol and sing like a bird, but he felt almost like endeavouring to hum a tune, as he stepped out of Hyde Park Mansions, and contemplated his horses drawn up before the door.
The afternoon was as balmy as a day in June, and to complete the simile of the old song, he had put on a blue frock-coat, dispensing with an overcoat, after sending Adolf down three times to make sure that there was not the least suspicion of east in the wind; and the frock-coat was buttoned so tightly around his personable form, that, if the buttons did not shine, they might pardonably have done so. Majestic on the pavement he fitted on a pair of dog-skin gloves; with his large bell-shaped top hat, and his great stature and bulk he looked too primeval for a Forsyte. His thick white hair, on which Adolf had bestowed a touch of pomatum, exhaled the fragrance of opoponax[23] and cigars the celebrated Swithin brand, for which he paid one hundred and forty shillings the hundred, and of which old Jolyon had unkindly said, he wouldnt smoke them as a gift; they wanted the stomach of a horse!
Adolf!
Sare!
The new plaid rug!
He would never teach that fellow to look smart; and Mrs. Soames he felt sure, had an eye!
The phaeton hood down; I am going to drive a lady!
A pretty woman would want to show off her frock; and well he was going to drive a lady! It was like a new beginning to the good old days.
Ages since he had driven a woman! The last time, if he remembered, it had been Juley; the poor old soul had been as nervous as a cat the whole time, and so put him out of patience that, as he dropped her in the Bayswater Road, he had said: Well Im d d if I ever drive you again! And he never had, not he!
Going up to his horses heads, he examined their bits; not that he knew anything about bits he didnt pay his coachman sixty pounds a year to do his work for him, that had never been his principle. Indeed, his reputation as a horsey man rested mainly on the fact that once, on Derby Day, he had been welshed[24] by some thimble-riggers. But someone at the Club, after seeing him drive his greys up to the door he always drove grey horses, you got more style for the money, some thought had called him Four-in-hand Forsyte. The name having reached his ears through that fellow Nicholas Treffry, old Jolyons dead partner, the great driving man notorious for more carriage accidents than any man in the kingdom Swithin had ever after conceived it right to act up to it. The name had taken his fancy, not because he had ever driven four-in-hand, or was ever likely to, but because of something distinguished in the sound. Four-in-hand Forsyte! Not bad! Born too soon, Swithin had missed his vocation. Coming upon London twenty years later, he could not have failed to have become a stockbroker, but at the time when he was obliged to select, this great profession had not as yet became the chief glory of the upper-middle class. He had literally been forced into land agency.
Once in the driving seat, with the reins handed to him, and blinking over his pale old cheeks in the full sunlight, he took a slow look round Adolf was already up behind; the cockaded groom at the horses heads stood ready to let go; everything was prepared for the signal, and Swithin gave it. The equipage dashed forward, and before you could say Jack Robinson, with a rattle and flourish drew up at Soames door.
Irene came out at once, and stepped in he afterward described it at Timothys as light as er Taglioni[25], no fuss about it, no wanting this or wanting that; and above all, Swithin dwelt on this, staring at Mrs. Septimus in a way that disconcerted her a good deal, no silly nervousness! To Aunt Hester he portrayed Irenes hat. Not one of your great flopping things, sprawling about, and catching the dust, that women are so fond of nowadays, but a neat little he made a circular motion of his hand, white veil capital taste.
What was it made of? inquired Aunt Hester, who manifested a languid but permanent excitement at any mention of dress.
Made of? returned Swithin; now how should I know?
He sank into silence so profound that Aunt Hester began to be afraid he had fallen into a trance. She did not try to rouse him herself, it not being her custom.
I wish somebody would come, she thought; I dont like the look of him!
But suddenly Swithin returned to life. Made of he wheezed out slowly, what should it be made of?
They had not gone four miles before Swithin received the impression that Irene liked driving with him. Her face was so soft behind that white veil, and her dark eyes shone so in the spring light, and whenever he spoke she raised them to him and smiled.
On Saturday morning Soames had found her at her writing-table with a note written to Swithin, putting him off. Why did she want to put him off? he asked. She might put her own people off when she liked, he would not have her putting off his people!
She had looked at him intently, had torn up the note, and said: Very well!
And then she began writing another. He took a casual glance presently, and saw that it was addressed to Bosinney.
What are you writing to him about? he asked.
Irene, looking at him again with that intent look, said quietly: Something he wanted me to do for him!
Humph! said Soames, Commissions!
Youll have your work cut out if you begin that sort of thing! He said no more.
Swithin opened his eyes at the mention of Robin Hill; it was a long way for his horses, and he always dined at half-past seven, before the rush at the Club began; the new chef took more trouble with an early dinner a lazy rascal!
He would like to have a look at the house, however. A house appealed to any Forsyte, and especially to one who had been an auctioneer. After all he said the distance was nothing. When he was a younger man he had had rooms at Richmond for many years, kept his carriage and pair there, and drove them up and down to business every day of his life.
Four-in-hand Forsyte they called him! His T-cart, his horses had been known from Hyde Park Corner to the Star and Garter. The Duke of Z. wanted to get hold of them, would have given him double the money, but he had kept them; know a good thing when you have it, eh? A look of solemn pride came portentously on his shaven square old face, he rolled his head in his stand-up collar, like a turkey-cock preening himself.
She was really a charming woman! He enlarged upon her frock afterwards to Aunt Juley, who held up her hands at his way of putting it.
Fitted her like a skin tight as a drum; that was how he liked em, all of a piece, none of your daverdy, scarecrow women! He gazed at Mrs. Septimus Small, who took after James long and thin.
Theres style about her, he went on, fit for a king! And shes so quiet with it too!
She seems to have made quite a conquest of you, any way, drawled Aunt Hester from her corner.
Swithin heard extremely well when anybody attacked him.
Whats that? he said. I know a pretty woman when I see one, and all I can say is, I dont see the young man about thats fit for her; but perhaps you do, come, perhaps you-do!
Oh? murmured Aunt Hester, ask Juley!
Long before they reached Robin Hill, however, the unaccustomed airing had made him terribly sleepy; he drove with his eyes closed, a life-time of deportment alone keeping his tall and bulky form from falling askew.
Bosinney, who was watching, came out to meet them, and all three entered the house together; Swithin in front making play with a stout gold-mounted Malacca cane, put into his hand by Adolf, for his knees were feeling the effects of their long stay in the same position. He had assumed his fur coat, to guard against the draughts of the unfinished house.
The staircase he said was handsome! the baronial style! They would want some statuary about! He came to a standstill between the columns of the doorway into the inner court, and held out his cane inquiringly.
What was this to be this vestibule, or whatever they called it? But gazing at the skylight, inspiration came to him.