The Forsyte Saga - Complete

hank you for that good lie," said Jolyon suddenl

with a steel-blue sheen on their swift little bodies; the grass felt springy beneath the feet, its green refreshed; butterflies chased each other. After that painful scene the quiet of Nature was wonderfully poignant. Under the sun-soaked wall ran a narrow strip of garden-bed full of mignonette and pansies, and from the bees came a low hum in which all other sounds were set-the mooing of a cow deprived of her calf, the call

dored? Could beauty be confided to him? Or should she not be just a visitor, coming when she would, possessed for moments which passed, to return only at her own choosing? 'We are a breed of spoilers!' thought

e encircling fabric of the possessive instinct walling in that little black figure of himself, and Soames-was it to be rent so that he could pass

through at the first moment, so that her neck might be out of chancery at last! To-morrow he would see Herring-they would go and see him together. And then-abroad, leaving no doubt, no difficulty about evidence, making the lie she had told into the truth. He looked round at her; and it seemed to his adoring

mine!' he thought

ighting with the faint mysterious little noise they make. He had placed the chairs in front of the study window, and moths flew past to visit the discreet light in there. There was no wind, and not a whisper in the old oak-tree twenty yards away

udy bell. The maid who came handed him a telegram. Watching her take Irene away, he thought: 'This must have come an hour or mor

passed painlessly away on June 20th. D

old armchair-his father's-and sank down on to the arm of it. He sat there huddled' forward, staring into the night. Gone out like a candle flame; far from home, from love, all by himself, in the dark! His boy! From a little

ll the deeply rooted clanship in him, the family feeling and essential clinging to his own flesh and blood which had been so strong in old Jolyon was so strong in all the Forsytes-fel

so that it seemed watching him-the oak-tree his boy had been so fond of cl

She sank on her knees close to him, and he forced himself to smile at her. She stretched up her arms and drew his