第72章

JOLLY SITS IN JUDGMENT

The possessive instinct,which,so determinedly balked,was animating two members of the Forsyte family towards riddance of what they could no longer possess,was hardening daily in the British body politic.Nicholas,originally so doubtful concerning a war which must affect property,had been heard to say that these Boers were a pig-headed lot;they were causing a lot of expense,and the sooner they had their lesson the better.He would send out Wolseley!Seeing always a little further than other people--whence the most considerable fortune of all the Forsytes--he had perceived already that Buller was not the man--'a bull of a chap,who just went butting,and if they didn't look out Ladysmith would fall.'

This was early in December,so that when Black Week came,he was enabled to say to everybody:'I told you so.'During that week of gloom such as no Forsyte could remember,very young Nicholas attended so many drills in his corps,'The Devil's Own,'that young Nicholas consulted the family physician about his son's health and was alarmed to find that he was perfectly sound.The boy had only just eaten his dinners and been called to the bar,at some expense,and it was in a way a nightmare to his father and mother that he should be playing with military efficiency at a time when military efficiency in the civilian population might conceivably be wanted.

His grandfather,of course,pooh-poohed the notion,too thoroughly educated in the feeling that no British war could be other than little and professional,and profoundly distrustful of Imperial commitments,by which,moreover,he stood to lose,for he owned De Beers,now going down fast,more than a sufficient sacrifice on the part of his grandson.

At Oxford,however,rather different sentiments prevailed.The inherent effervescence of conglomerate youth had,during the two months of the term before Black Week,been gradually crystallising out into vivid oppositions.Normal adolescence,ever in England of a conservative tendency though not taking things too seriously,was vehement for a fight to a finish and a good licking for the Boers.

Of this larger faction Val Dartie was naturally a member.Radical youth,on the other hand,a small but perhaps more vocal body,was for stopping the war and giving the Boers autonomy.Until Black Week,however,the groups were amorphous,without sharp edges,and argument remained but academic.Jolly was one of those who knew not where he stood.A streak of his grandfather old Jolyon's love of justice prevented,him from seeing one side only.Moreover,in his set of 'the best'there was a 'jumping-Jesus'of extremely advanced opinions and some personal magnetism.Jolly wavered.His father,too,seemed doubtful in his views.And though,as was proper at the age of twenty,he kept a sharp eye on his father,watchful for defects which might still be remedied,still that father had an 'air'which gave a sort of glamour to his creed of ironic tolerance.Artists of course;were notoriously Hamlet-like,and to this extent one must discount for one's father,even if one loved him.But Jolyon's original view,that to 'put your nose in where you aren't wanted'(as the Uitlanders had done)'and then work the oracle till you get on top is not being quite the clean potato,'had,whether founded in fact or no,a certain attraction for his son,who thought a deal about gentility.On the other hand Jolly could not abide such as his set called 'cranks,'and Val's set called 'smugs,'so that he was still balancing when the clock of Black Week struck.One--two--three,came those ominous repulses at Stormberg,Magersfontein,Colenso.The sturdy English soul reacting after the first cried,'Ah!but Methuen!'after the second:'Ah!but Buller!'then,in inspissated gloom,hardened.

And Jolly said to himself:'No,damn it!We've got to lick the beggars now;I don't care whether we're right or wrong.'And,if he had known it,his father was thinking the same thought.

That next Sunday,last of the term,Jolly was bidden to wine with 'one of the best.'After the second toast,'Buller and damnation to the Boers,'drunk--no heel taps--in the college Burgundy,he noticed that Val Dartie,also a guest,was looking at him with a grin and saying something to his neighbour.He was sure it was disparaging.The last boy in the world to make himself conspicuous or cause public disturbance,Jolly grew rather red and shut his lips.The queer hostility he had always felt towards his second-cousin was strongly and suddenly reinforced.'All right!'he thought,'you wait,my friend!'More wine than was good for him,as the custom was,helped him to remember,when they all trooped forth to a secluded spot,to touch Val on the arm.

"What did you say about me in there?"

"Mayn't I say what I like?"

"No."

"Well,I said you were a pro-Boer--and so you are!""You're a liar!"

"D'you want a row?"

"Of course,but not here;in the garden."

"All right.Come on."

They went,eyeing each other askance,unsteady,and unflinching;they climbed the garden railings.The spikes on the top slightly ripped Val's sleeve,and occupied his mind.Jolly's mind was occupied by the thought that they were going to fight in the precincts of a college foreign to them both.It was not the thing,but never mind--the young beast!

They passed over the grass into very nearly darkness,and took off their coats.

"You're not screwed,are you?"said Jolly suddenly."I can't fight you if you're screwed.""No more than you."

"All right then."

Without shaking hands,they put themselves at once into postures of defence.They had drunk too much for science,and so were especially careful to assume correct attitudes,until Jolly smote Val almost accidentally on the nose.After that it was all a dark and ugly scrimmage in the deep shadow of the old trees,with no one to call 'time,'till,battered and blown,they unclinched and staggered back from each other,as a voice said:

"Your names,young gentlemen?"