The Man of Property PDF by John Galsworthy

The Man of Property  IRew OS. IFlovels BLUE JAY By Peggy Webling WILD JUSTICE By Lloyd Osbourne TALES OF THE FISH PATROL By Jack London THE ANGEL OF PAIN By E. F. Benson FATE'S INTRUDER By Frank Savile and A. E. T. WATSOit JULES OF THE GREAT HEART By L...

The Man of Property  IRew OS. IFlovels BLUE JAY By Peggy Webling WILD JUSTICE By Lloyd Osbourne TALES OF THE FISH PATROL By Jack London THE ANGEL OF PAIN By E. F. Benson FATE'S INTRUDER By Frank Savile and A. E. T. WATSOit JULES OF THE GREAT HEART By Lawrence Mott A VENDETTA OF VANITY FAIR By Esther Miller THE MAN By Bram Stoker A LAME DOG'S DIARY By S. Macnaughtan THE LAKE By George Moore LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 21 Bedford Street, W.C.  The Man of Property By John Galsworthy Author of 'The Island Pharisees ' etc. '... You will answer The slaves are ours... " ' Merchant of Venice London William Heinemann 1906 This Edition enjoys copyright in- Berne all countiies signatory to the Treaty, and is not to be imported into the United States o/ Atnerica  TO EDWARD GARNETT 2148b()  1 CONTENTS PART I. CHAPTER PAGE I. 'at home' at old jolyon's - - - - 3 II. OLD JOLYON GOES TO THE OPERA - - -25 III. DINNER AT SWITHIN'S - - - - - 43 IV. PROJECTION OF THE HOUSE - - - - 61 V. A FORSYTE MENAGE - - - - - Th VI. JAMES AT LARGE - - - - - 81 VII. OLD JOLYON'S PECCADILLO - - - - 92 VIII. PLANS OF THE HOUSE - - - - - I02 IX. DEATH OF AUNT ANN - - - - - 112 PART II. I. PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE - - - " 125 II. III. IV. JUNE'S TREAT DRIVE WITH SWITHIN - ----- - JAMES GOES TO SEE FOR HIMSELF - - - - - -135 "157 144 V. SOAMES AND BOSINNEY CORRESPOND - - - 170 VI. OLD JOLYON AT THE ZOO - - - - 1 88 VII. AFTERNOON AT TIMOTHY'S - - - - 195 VIII. DANCE AT ROGER^S - - - - - 2 JO IX. EVENING AT RICHMOND - - - - 220 X. XI. XII. DIAGNOSIS OF A FORSYTE BOSINNEY ON PAROLE JUNE PAYS SOME CALLS -----. - - -. -. - 233 244 250 XIII. PERFECTION OF THE HOUSE - - - - 261 XIV. SOAMES SITS ON THE STAIRS - - - - 27 vii viii CONTENTS PART III. CHAPTER PAGE I. II. III. NIGHT IN THE PARK ----- MRS. MACANDER'S EVIDENCE MEETING AT THE BOTANICAL - - - - - - - - 279 292 298 IV. V. THE TRIAL._---- VOYAGE INTO THE INFERNO. - - - 314 326 VI. VII. VIII. JUNE'S VICTORY ------ SOAMES BREAKS THE NEWS BOSINNEY'S DEPARTURE- -. - - - - - - 336 349 359 IX. IRENE'S RETURN - - - - "371 PART I  — THE MAN OF PROPERTY CHAPTER I 'at home' at old jolyon's Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight an upper middle-class family in full plumage. But who- soever of these favoured persons has possessed the gift of psychological analysis (a talent without monetary value and properly ignored by the Forsytes), has witnessed a spectacle, not only delightful in itself, but illustrative of an obscure human problem. In plainer words, he has gleaned from a gathering of this family —no branch of which had a liking for the other, between no three members of whom existed anything worthy of the name of sympathy — evidence of that mysterious concrete tenacity which renders a family so formidable a unit of society, so clear a reproduction of society in miniature. He has been admitted to a vision of the dim roads of social progress, has understood some- thing of patriarchal life, of the swarmings of savage hordes, of the rise and fall of nations. He is like one who, having watched a tree grow from its planting — a paragon of tenacity, insulation, and success, amidst the deaths of a I  — 4 THE MAN OF PROPERTY hundred other plants less fibrous, sappy, and persistent one day will see it flourishing with bland, full foliage, in an almost repugnant prosperity, at the summit of its efflorescence. On June 15, late in the eighties, about four of the afternoon, the observer who chanced to be present at the house of old Jolyon Forsyte in Stanhope Gate, might have seen the highest efflorescence of the Forsytes. This was the occasion of an ' at home to celebrate the ' engagement of Miss June Forsyte, old Jolyon's grand- daughter, to Mr. Philip Bosinney. In the bravery of light gloves, buff waistcoats, feathers and frocks, the family were present — even Aunt Ann, who now but seldom left the corner of her brother Timothy's green drawing-room, where, under the aegis of a plume of dyed pampas grass in a light blue vase, she sat all day reading and knitting, surrounded by the effigies of three generations of Forsytes. Even Aunt Ann was there ; her inflexible back, and the dignity of her calm old face personifying the rigid possessiveness of the family idea. Whena Forsyte was engaged, married, or born, the Forsytes were present when a Forsyte died ; but no — Forsyte had as yet died they did not die ; death being ; contrary to their principles, they took precautions against it, the instinctive precautions of highly vitalized persons who resent encroachments on their property. About the Forsytes mingling that day with the crowd of other guests, there was a more than ordinarily groomed look, an alert, inquisitive assurance, a brilliant respectability, as though they were attired in defiance of something. The habitual sniff on the face ofSoames Forsyte had spread through their ranks \ they were on their guard. The subconscious ofFensiveness of their attitude has constituted old Jolyon's ' at home ' the psycliological  2 — *AT HOME' AT OLD JOLYON'S 5 moment of the family history, made it the prelude of their drama. The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individu- ally, but as a family ; this resentment expressed itself in an added perfection of raiment, an exuberance of family cordiality, an exaggeration of family importance, and the — snifF. Danger — so indispensable in bringing out the funda- mental quality of any society, group, or individual —was what the Forsytes scented the premonition of danger put ; a burnish on their armour. For the first time, as a family, they appeared to have an instinct of being in contact with some strange and unsafe thing. Over against the piano a man ot bulk and stature was wearing two waistcoats on his wide chest, two waistcoats and a ruby pin, instead of the single satin waistcoat and diamond pin of more usual occasions, and his shaven, square, old face, the colour of pale leather, with pale eyes, had its most dignified look, above his satin stock. This was Swithin Forsyte. Close to the window, where he could get more than his fair share of fresh air, the other twin, James the fat and the lean of it, old Jolyon called these brothers like the bulky Swithin, over six feet in height, but very lean, asthough destined from his birth to strike a balance and maintain an average, brooded over the scene with his permanent stoop his gray eyes had an air of fixed absorption ; in some secret worry, broken at intervals by a rapid, shifting scrutiny or surrounding facts; his cheeks, thinned by two and a long, clean-shaven upper lip, were framed parallel folds, within Dundreary whiskers. In his hands he turned and turned a piece of china. Not far off, listening to a lady in brown, his only son Soames, pale and well-shaved, dark- haired, rather bald,had poked his chin up sideways, carrying his nose with that aforesaid appearance of ^ sniff,' as though despising an egg which he knew he could not digest. I —  — 6 THE MAN OF PROPERTY Behind him his cousin, the tall George, son of the fifth Forsyte, Roger, had a Quilpish look on his fleshy face, pondering one of his sardonic jests. Something inherent had affected them all. to the occasion Seated in a row one another were three ladies close to Aunts Ann, Hester (the two Forsyte maids), and Juley (short for Julia), who not in first youth had so far forgotten marry Septimus Small, a man of poor constitu- herself as to tion. She had survived him for many years. With her elder and younger sister she lived now in the house of Timothy, her sixth and youngest brother, on the Bayswater Road. Each of these ladies held fans in their hands, and each with some touch of colour, some emphatic feather or brooch, testified to the solemnity of the opportunity. In the centre of the room, under the chandelier, as became a host, stood the head of the family, old Jolyon himself. Eighty years of age, with his fine, white hair, his dome-like forehead, his little, dark gray eyes, and an immense white moustache, which drooped and spread below the level of his strong jaw, he had a patriarchal look, and in spite of lean cheeks and hollows at his temples, seemed master of perennial youth. He held himself extremely upright, and his shrewd, steady eyes had lost none of their clear shining. Thus he gave an impression of superiority to the doubts and dislikes of smaller men. Having had his own way for innumerable years, he had earned a prescriptive right to it. It would never have occurred to old Jolyon that it was necessary to wear a look of doubt or of defiance. Between him and the four other brothers who were present, James, Swithin, Nicholas, and Roger, there was much difference, much similarity. In turn, each of these four brothers was very different from the other, yet they, too, were alike. Through the varying features and expression of those five  — *AT HOME' AT OLD JOLYON'S 7 faces could be marked a certain steadfastness of chin, under- lying surface distinctions, marking a racial stamp, too pre- historic to trace, too remote and permanent to discuss — the very hall-mark and guarantee of the family fortunes. Among the younger generation, in the tall, bull-like George, in pallid strenuous Archibald, young Nicholas in with his sweet and tentative obstinacy, in the grave and foppishly determined Eustace, there was this same stamp less meaningful perhaps, but unmistakable — a sign of some- thing ineradicable in the family soul. At one time or another during the afternoon, all these faces, so dissimilar and so alike, had worn an expression of distrust, the object of which was undoubtedly the man whose acquaintance they were thus assembled to make. Philip Bosinney was known to be a young man without fortune, but Forsyte girls had become engaged to such before,and had actually married them. It was not alto- gether for this reason, therefore, that the minds of the Forsytes misgave them. They could not have explained the origin of a misgiving obscured by the mist of family gossip. A story was undoubtedly told that he had paid his duty call to Aunts Ann, Juley, and Hester, in a soft gray hat a — soft gray hat, not even a new one — a dusty thing with a shapeless crown. ' So extraordinary, my dear — so odd !* Aunt Hester, passing through the little, dark hall (she was rather short-sighted), had tried to ' shoo ' it off a chair, taking it for a strange, disreputable cat —Tommy had such disgraceful friends ! She was disturbed when it did not move. Like an artist for ever seeking to discover the significant trifle which embodies the whole character of a scene, or place, or person, so those unconscious artists — the Forsytes had fastened by intuition on this hat it was their significant ; trifle, which was embedded the meaning of the the detail in whole matter; for each had asked himself: 'Come, now,  ! ! 8 THE MAN OF PROPERTY should / have paid that visit in that hat ?' and each had answered * No !' and some, with more imagination than others, had added : * It would never have come into my head !' George, on hearing the story, grinned. The hat had obviously been worn as a practical joke ! He himself was a connoisseur of such. * Very haughty !' he said, ' the wild Buccaneer !' And this ?not^ ' the Buccaneer,' was bandied from mouth to mouth, till it became the favourite mode of alluding to Bosinney. Her aunts reproached June afterwards about the hat. ' We don't think you ought to let him, dear !' they had said. June had answered in her imperious brisk way, like the littleembodiment of will she was : * Oh what does it matter ? Phil never knows what he's ! got on !' No one had credited an answer so outrageous, A man not know what he had on ? No, no ! What indeed was this young man, who, in becoming engaged to June, old Jolyon's acknowledged heiress, had done so well for himself ? He was an architect, not in itself a sufficient reason for wearing such a hat. None or the them knew Forsytes happened to be architects, but one of two architects who would never have worn such a hat upon a call or ceremony in the London season. Dangerous ah, — dangerous June, of course, had not seen this, but, though not yet nineteen, she was notorious. Had she not said to Mrs. — Soames who was always so beautifully dressed that — feathers were vulgar? Mrs. Soames had actually given up wearing feathers, so dreadfully downright was dear June These misgivings, this disapproval and perfectly genuine distrust, did not prevent the Forsytes from gathering to old  — 'AT HOME' AT OLD JOLYON'S 9 Jolyon's invitation. An At Home' at Stanhope Gate was * a great none had been held for eight years, not rarity; indeed, since old Mrs. Jolyon died. Never had there been so full an assembly, for, mysteriously united in spite ot all their differences, they had taken arms against a common peril. Like cattle when a dog comes into the field, they stood head to head and shoulder to shoulder, prepared to run upon and trample the invader to death. They had come, too, no doubt, to get some notion of what sort of presents they would ultimately be expected to give ; for though the question of wedding gifts was usually graduated in this way — ' What are you givin' ? Nicholas is givin' spoons !' — so very much depended on the bridegroom. If he were sleek, well-brushed, prosperous- looking, it was more necessary to give him nice things ; he would expect them. In the end each gave exactly what was right and proper, by a species of family adjustment arrived at as prices are arrived at on the Stock Exchange the exact niceties being regulated at Timothy's commodious, red-brick residence in Bayswater, overlooking the Park, where dwelt Aunts Ann, Juley, and Hester. The uneasiness of the Forsyte family has been justified by the simple mention of the hat. How impossible and wrong would it have been for any family, with the regard for appearances which should ever characterize the great upper middle-class, to feel otherwise than uneasy ! The author of the uneasiness stood talking to June by the further door ; his curly hair had a rumpled appearance, as though he found what was going on around him unusual. He had an air, too, of having a joke all to himself. George, speaking aside to his brother Eustace, said : ' Looks as if he might make a bolt of it —the dashing buccaneer !' This ' very singular-looking man,' as Mrs. Small after-  : a 10 THE MAN OF PROPERTY wards called him, was of medium height and strong build, with a pale, brown face, a dust-coloured moustache, very prominent cheekbones, and hollow cheeks. His forehead sloped back towards the crown of his head, and bulged out in bumps over the eyes, like foreheads seen in the lion-house at the Zoo. He had sherry-coloured eyes, disconcertingly inattentive at times. Old Jolyon's coachman, after driving June and Bosinney to the theatre, had remarked to the butler < I dunno what to make of 'im. Looks to me for all the world like an 'alf-tame leopard.' And every now and then a Forsyte v/ould come up, sidle round, and take a look at him. June stood in front, fending off this idle curiosity — little bit of a thing, as somebody once said, * all hair and spirit,' with fearless blue eyes, a firm jaw, and a bright colour, whose face and body seemed too slender for her crown of red-gold hair. A tall woman, with a beautiful figure, which some member of the family had once compared to a heathen goddess, stood looking at these two with a shadowy smile. Her hands, gloved in French gray, were crossed one over the other, her grave, charming face held to one side, and the eyes of all men near were fastened on it. Her figure swayed, so balanced that the very air seemed to set it moving. There was warmth, but little colour, in her cheeks ; her large, dark eyes were soft. But it was at her —asking a question, giving an answer, with that shadowy lips smile — men looked they were that ; sensuous sensitive lips, and sweet, and through them seemed to come warmth and perfume like the warmth and perfume of a flower. The engaged couple thus scrutinized were unconscious of this passive goddess. It was Bosinney who first noticed her, and asked her name.  —