The Forsyte Saga(350)

‘Well, young man! I’m here for my daughter; it rests with you, it seems – this matter. Your mother leaves it in your hands.’

The boy continued staring at his mother’s face, and made no answer.

‘For my daughter’s sake I’ve brought myself to come,’ said Soames. ‘What am I to say to her when I go back?’

Still looking at his mother, the boy said, quietly:

‘Tell Fleur that it’s no good, please; I must do as my father wished before he died.’

‘Jon!’

‘It’s all right, Mother.’

In a kind of stupefaction Soames looked from one to the other, then, taking up hat and umbrella which he had put down on a chair, he walked toward the curtains. The boy stood aside for him to go by. He passed through and heard the grate of the rings as the curtains were drawn behind him. The sound liberated something in his chest.

‘So that’s that!’ he thought, and passed out of the front door.





Chapter Eight



THE DARK TUNE





As Soames walked away from the house at Robin Hill the sun broke through the grey of the chill afternoon, in smoky radiance. So absorbed in landscape painting that he seldom looked seriously for effects of Nature out of doors – he was struck by that moody effulgence – it mounted with a triumph suited to his own feeling. Victory in defeat! His embassy had come to naught. But he was rid of those people, had regained his daughter at the expense of – her happiness. What would Fleur say to him? Would she believe he had done his best? And under that sunlight flaring on the elms, hazels, hollies of the lane and those unexploited fields, Soames felt dread. She would be terribly upset! He must appeal to her pride. That boy had given her up, declared part and lot with the woman who so long ago had given her father up! Soames clenched his hands. Given him up, and why? What had been wrong with him? And once more he felt the malaise of one who contemplates himself as seen by another – like a dog who chances on his reflection in a mirror and is intrigued and anxious at the unseizable thing.

Not in a hurry to get home, he dined in town at the Connoisseurs. While eating a pear it suddenly occurred to him that, if he had not gone down to Robin Hill, the boy might not have so decided. He remembered the expression on his face while his mother was refusing the hand he had held out. A strange, an awkward thought I Had Fleur cooked her own goose by trying to make too sure?

He reached home at half-past nine. While the car was passing in at one drive gate he heard the grinding sputter of a motorcycle passing out by the other. Young Mont, no doubt, so Fleur had not been lonely. But he went in with a sinking heart. In the cream-panelled drawing-room she was sitting with her elbows on her knees, and her chin on her clasped hands, in front of a white camellia plant which filled the fireplace. That glance at her before she saw him renewed his dread. What was she seeing among those white camellias?

‘Well, Father!’

Soames shook his head. His tongue failed him. This was murderous work! He saw her eyes dilate, her lips quivering.

‘What? What? Quick, Father!’

‘My dear,’ said Soames, ‘I – I did my best –’ And again he shook his head.

Fleur ran to him, and put a hand on each of his shoulders.

‘She?’

‘No,’ muttered Soames; ‘he. I was to tell you that it was no use; he must do what his father wished before he died.’ He caught her by the waist. ‘Come, child, don’t let them hurt you. They’re not worth your little finger.’

Fleur tore herself from his grasp.

‘You didn’t – you couldn’t have tried. You – you betrayed me, Father!’

Bitterly wounded, Soames gazed at her passionate figure writhing there in front of him.

‘You didn’t try – you didn’t – I was a fool – I won’t believe he could – he ever could! Only yesterday he –! Oh! why did I ask you?’

‘Yes,’ said Soames, quietly, ‘why did you? I swallowed my feelings; I did my best for you, against my judgement – and this is my reward. Good night!’

With every nerve in his body twitching he went toward the door.

Fleur darted after him.

‘He gives me up? You mean that? Father!’

Soames turned and forced himself to answer:

‘Yes.’

‘Oh!’ cried Fleur. ‘What did you – what could you have done in those old days?’

The breathless sense of really monstrous injustice cut the power of speech in Soames’s throat. What had he done! What had they done to him! And with quite unconscious dignity he put his hand on his breast, and looked at her.

‘It’s a shame!’ cried Fleur passionately.