The Forsyte Saga(20)

‘That little thing’s at the bottom of it all,’ he mused; ‘Irene’d never have thought of it herself.’ James was a man of imagination.

The voice of Swithin roused him from his reverie.

‘I gave four hundred pounds for it,’ he was saying. ‘Of course it’s a regular work of art.’

‘Four hundred! H’m! that’s a lot of money!’ chimed in Nicholas.

The object alluded to was an elaborate group of statuary in Italian marble, which, placed upon a lofty stand (also of marble), diffused an atmosphere of culture throughout the room. The subsidiary figures, of which there were six, female, nude, and of highly ornate workmanship, were all pointing towards the central figure, also nude, and female, who was pointing at herself; and all this gave the observer a very pleasant sense of her extreme value. Aunt Juley, nearly opposite, had had the greatest difficulty in not looking at it all the evening.

Old Jolyon spoke; it was he who had started the discussion.

‘Four hundred fiddlesticks! Don’t tell me you gave four hundred for that?’

Between the points of his collar Swithin’s chin made the second painful oscillatory movement of the evening. ‘Four – hundred – pounds, of English money; not a farthing less. I don’t regret it. It’s not common English – it’s genuine modern Italian!’

Soames raised the corner of his lip in a smile, and looked across at Bosinney. The architect was grinning behind the fumes of his cigarette. Now, indeed, he looked more like a buccaneer.

‘There’s a lot of work about it,’ remarked James hastily, who was really moved by the size of the group. ‘It’d sell well at Jobson’s.’

‘The poor foreign dey-vil that made it,’ went on Swithin, ‘asked me five hundred – I gave him four. It’s worth eight Looked half-starved, poor dey-vil!’

‘Ah!’ chimed in Nicholas suddenly, ‘poor, seedy-lookin’ chaps, these artists; it’s a wonder to me how they live. Now, there’s young Flageoletti, that Fanny and the girls are always havin’ in, to play the fiddle; if he makes a hundred a year it’s as much as ever he does!’

James shook his head. ‘Ah!’ he said, ‘I don’t know how they live!’

Old Jolyon had risen, and, cigar in mouth, went to inspect the group at close quarters.

‘Wouldn’t have given two for it!’ he pronounced at last.

Soames saw his father and Nicholas glance at each other anxiously; and, on the other side of Swithin, Bosinney, still shrouded in smoke.

‘I wonder what he thinks of it?’ thought Soames, who knew well enough that this group was hopelessly vieux jeu; hopelessly of the last generation. There was no longer any sale at Jobson’s for such works of art.

Swithin’s answer came at last. ‘You never knew anything about a statue. You’ve got your pictures, and that’s all!’

Old Jolyon walked back to his seat, puffing his cigar. It was not likely that he was going to be drawn into an argument with an obstinate beggar like Swithin, pig-headed as a mule, who had never known a statue from – a straw hat.

‘Stucco!’ was all he said.

It had long been physically impossible for Swithin to start; his fist came down on the table.

‘Stucco! I should like to see anything you’ve got in your house half as good!’

And behind his speech seemed to sound again that rumbling violence of primitive generations.

It was James who saved the situation.

‘Now, what do you say, Mr Bosinney? You’re an architect; you ought to know all about statues and things!’

Every eye was turned upon Bosinney; all waited with a strange, suspicious look for his answer.

And Soames, speaking for the first time, asked:

‘Yes, Bosinney, what do you say?’

Bosinney replied coolly:

‘The work is a remarkable one.’

His words were addressed to Swithin, his eyes smiled slyly at old Jolyon; only Soames remained unsatisfied.

‘Remarkable for what?’

‘For its naïveté.’

The answer was followed by an impressive silence; Swithin alone was not sure whether a compliment was intended.





Chapter Four



PROJECTION OF THE HOUSE





SOAMES FORSYTE walked out of his greenpainted front door three days after the dinner at Swithin’s, and looking back from across the Square, confirmed his impression that the house wanted painting.

He had left his wife sitting on the sofa in the drawing-room, her hands crossed in her lap, manifestly waiting for him to go out. This was not unusual. It happened, in fact, every day.

He could not understand what she found wrong with him. It was not as if he drank! Did he run into debt, or gamble, or swear; was he violent; were his friends rackety; did he stay out at night? On the contrary.