第22章

Thus,of the ten old Forsytes twenty-one young Forsytes had been born;but of the twenty-one young Forsytes there were as yet only seventeen descendants;and it already seemed unlikely that there would be more than a further unconsidered trifle or so.A student of statistics must have noticed that the birth rate had varied in accordance with the rate of interest for your money.Grandfather 'Superior Dosset'Forsyte in the early nineteenth century had been getting ten per cent.for his,hence ten children.Those ten,leaving out the four who had not married,and Juley,whose husband Septimus Small had,of course,died almost at once,had averaged from four to five per cent.for theirs,and produced accordingly.

The twenty-one whom they produced were now getting barely three per cent.in the Consols to which their father had mostly tied the Settlements they made to avoid death duties,and the six of them who had been reproduced had seventeen children,or just the proper two and five-sixths per stem.

There were other reasons,too,for this mild reproduction.Adistrust of their earning powers,natural where a sufficiency is guaranteed,together with the knowledge that their fathers did not die,kept them cautious.If one had children and not much income,the standard of taste and comfort must of necessity go down;what was enough for two was not enough for four,and so on-it would be better to wait and see what Father did.Besides,it was nice to be able to take holidays unhampered.Sooner in fact than own children,they preferred to concentrate on the ownership of them-selves,conforming to the growing tendency fin de siecle,as it was called.In this way,little risk was run,and one would be able to have a motor-car.Indeed,Eustace already had one,but it had shaken him horribly,and broken one of his eye teeth;so that it would be better to wait till they were a little safer.In the meantime,no more children!Even young Nicholas was drawing in his horns,and had made no addition to his six for quite three years.