plants less fibrous, sappy, and persistent-one day will see it flourishing with bland, full foliage, in an almost repugnant pros
“That ought to come down,” he said, pointing to the oak-tree.
“You think so? You think that with the tree there you don't get enough view for your money.”
Again James eyed him suspiciously-this young man had a peculiar way of putting things: “Well!” he said, with a perplexed, nervous, emphasis, “I don't see what you want with a tree.”
“It shall come down to-morrow,” said Bosinney.
James was alarmed. “Oh,” he said, “don't go saying I said it was to come down! I know nothing about it!”
“No?”
James went on in a fluster: “Why, what should I know about it? It's nothing to do with me! You do it on your own responsibility.”
The colour had deepened in her thin, oval face, with its straight brows, and large, grey eyes. Her hair, brushed in fine, high curves back from her forehead, was going grey, like his own, and this greyness made the sudden vivid colour in her cheeks painfully pathetic.
The look on her face, such as he had never seen there before, such as she had always hidden from him, was full of secret resentments, and longings, and fears. Her eyes, under their twitching brows, stared painfully. And she was silent.
To anyone interested psychologically in Forsytes, this great saddle-of-mutton trait is of prime importance; not only does it illustrate their tenacity, both collectively and as individuals, but it marks them as belonging in fibre and instincts to that great class which believes in nourishment and flavour, and yields to no sentimental craving for beauty.
Old Jolyon was too much of a Forsyte to praise anything freely; especially anything for which he had a genuine admiration.
It was her world, this family, and she knew no other, had never perhaps known any other. All their little secrets, illnesses, engagements, and marriages, how they were getting on, and whether they were making money-all this was her property, her delight, her life; beyond this only a vague, shadowy mist of facts and persons of no real significance.
Soames, pale and well-shaved, dark-haired, rather bald
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.
