第53章

ON FORSYTE 'CHANGE

Soames belonged to two clubs,'The Connoisseurs,'which he put on his cards and seldom visited,and 'The Remove,'which he did not put on his cards and frequented.He had joined this Liberal institution five years ago,having made sure that its members were now nearly all sound Conservatives in heart and pocket,if not in principle.Uncle Nicholas had put him up.The fine reading-room was decorated in the Adam style.

On entering that evening he glanced at the tape for any news about the Transvaal,and noted that Consols were down seven-sixteenths since the morning.He was turning away to seek the reading-room when a voice behind him said:

"Well,Soames,that went off all right."

It was Uncle Nicholas,in a frock-coat and his special cut-away collar,with a black tie passed through a ring.Heavens!How young and dapper he looked at eighty-two!

"I think Roger'd have been pleased,"his uncle went on."The thing was very well done.Blackley's?I'll make a note of them.

Buxton's done me no good.These Boers are upsetting me--that fellow Chamberlain's driving the country into war.What do you think?""Bound to come,"murmured Soames.

Nicholas passed his hand over his thin,cleanshaven cheeks,very rosy after his summer cure;a slight pout had gathered on his lips.

This business had revived all his Liberal principles.

"I mistrust that chap;he's a stormy petrel.House-property will go down if there's war.You'll have trouble with Roger's estate.

I often told him he ought to get out of some of his houses.He was an opinionated beggar."'There was a pair of you!'thought Soames.But he never argued with an uncle,in that way preserving their opinion of him as 'a long-headed chap,'and the legal care of their property.

"They tell me at Timothy's,"said Nicholas,lowering his voice,"that Dartie has gone off at last.That'll be a relief to your father.He was a rotten egg."Again Soames nodded.If there was a subject on which the Forsytes really agreed,it was the character of Montague Dartie.

"You take care,"said Nicholas,"or he'll turn up again.Winifred had better have the tooth out,I should say.No use preserving what's gone bad."Soames looked at him sideways.His nerves,exacerbated by the interview he had just come through,disposed him to see a personal allusion in those words.

"I'm advising her,"he said shortly.

"Well,"said Nicholas,"the brougham's waiting;I must get home.

I'm very poorly.Remember me to your father."And having thus reconsecrated the ties of blood,he passed down the steps at his youthful gait and was wrapped into his fur coat by the junior porter.

'I've never known Uncle Nicholas other than "very poorly,"'mused Soames,'or seen him look other than everlasting.What a family!

Judging by him,I've got thirty-eight years of health before me.

Well,I'm not going to waste them.'And going over to a mirror he stood looking at his face.Except for a line or two,and three or four grey hairs in his little dark moustache,had he aged any more than Irene?The prime of life--he and she in the very prime of life!And a fantastic thought shot into his mind.Absurd!

I diotic!But again it came.And genuinely alarmed by the recur-rence,as one is by the second fit of shivering which presages a feverish cold,he sat down on the weighing machine.Eleven stone!

He had not varied two pounds in twenty years.What age was she?

Nearly thirty-seven--not too old to have a child--not at all!

Thirty-seven on the ninth of next month.He remembered her birthday well--he had always observed it religiously,even that last birthday so soon before she left him,when he was almost certain she was faithless.Four birthdays in his house.He had looked forward to them,because his gifts had meant a semblance of gratitude,a certain attempt at warmth.Except,indeed,that last birthday--which had tempted him to be too religious!And he shied away in thought.Memory heaps dead leaves on corpse-like deeds,from under which they do but vaguely offend the sense.And then he thought suddenly:'I could send her a present for her birthday.

After all,we're Christians!Couldn't!--couldn't we join up again!'And he uttered a deep sigh sitting there.Annette!Ah!

But between him and Annette was the need for that wretched divorce suit!And how?

"A man can always work these things,if he'll take it on himself,"Jolyon had said.

But why should he take the scandal on himself with his whole career as a pillar of the law at stake?It was not fair!It was quix-otic!Twelve years'separation in which he had taken no steps to free himself put out of court the possibility of using her conduct with Bosinney as a ground for divorcing her.By doing nothing to secure relief he had acquiesced,even if the evidence could now be gathered,which was more than doubtful.Besides,his own pride would never let him use that old incident,he had suffered from it too much.No!Nothing but fresh misconduct on her part--but she had denied it;and--almost--he had believed her.Hung up!Utterly hung up!

He rose from the scooped-out red velvet seat with a feeling of constriction about his vitals.He would never sleep with this going on in him!And,taking coat and hat again,he went out,moving eastward.In Trafalgar Square he became aware of some special commotion travelling towards him out of the mouth of the Strand.It materialised in newspaper men calling out so loudly that no words whatever could be heard.He stopped to listen,and one came by.

"Payper!Special!Ultimatium by Krooger!Declaration of war!"Soames bought the paper.There it was in the stop press.!His first thought was:'The Boers are committing suicide.'His second:

'Is there anything still I ought to sell?'If so he had missed the chance--there would certainly be a slump in the city to-morrow.He swallowed this thought with a nod of defiance.That ultimatum was insolent--sooner than let it pass he was prepared to lose money.