OUT OF THE WEB
ON Forsyte 'Change the announcement of Jolly's death, among a batch of troopers, caused mixed sensation. Strange to read that Jolyon Forsyte (fifth of the name in direct descent) 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 still the prestige of old Jolyon that the other Forsytes could never quite feel, as might have been expected, that it was they who had cut off his descendants for irregularity. The news increased, of course, the interest and anxiety about Val; but then Val's name was Dartie, and even if he were killed in battle or got the Victoria Cross,* it would not be at all the same as if his name were Forsyte. Not even casualty or glory to the Haymans would be really satisfactory. Family pride felt defrauded.
How the rumour arose, then, that 'something, very dreadful, my dear,' was pending, no one, least of all Soames, could tell, secret as he kept everything. 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 wall at Park Lane had ears. The fact remained that it was known--whispered among the old, discussed among the young--that family pride must soon receive a blow.
Soames, paying one of his Sunday visits to Timothy's--paying it with the feeling that after the suit came on he would be paying no more--felt knowledge in the air as he came in. Nobody, of course, dared speak of it before him, but 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, that Aunt Hester excused herself and said she must go and bathe Timothy's eye--he had a sty coming. Soames impassive, slightly supercilious, did not stay long. He went out with a curse stifled behind his pale, just smiling lips.
Fortunately for the peace of his mind, cruelly tortured by the
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: The Forsyte Saga.
Contributors: John Galsworthy - Author, Geoffrey Harvey - Editor.
Publisher: Oxford University Press.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1995.
Page number: 558.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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