passion, and he could not expect
another from her at his age. But she had trust in him, affection for
him, and must feel that he would be a refuge. Surely she would not ask
him to defend the suit, knowing that he adored her! Thank Heaven she had
not that maddening British conscientiousness which refused happiness
for the sake of refusing! She must rejoice at this chance of being free
after seventeen years of death in life! As to publicity, the fat was in
the fire! To defend the suit would not take away the slur. Jolyon had
all the proper feeling of a Forsyte whose privacy is threatened: If he
was to be hung by the Law, by all means let it be for a sheep! Moreover
the notion of standing in a witness box and swearing to the truth that
no gesture, not even a word of love had passed between them seemed
to him more degrading than to take the tacit stigma of being an
adulterer--more truly degrading, considering the feeling in his heart,
and just as bad and painful for his children. The thought of explaining
away, if he could, before a judge and twelve average Englishmen, their
meetings in Paris, and the walks in Richmond Park, horrified him. The
brutality and hypocritical censoriousness of the whole process; the
probability that they would not be believed--the mere vision of her,
whom he looked on as the embodiment of Nature and of Beauty, standing
there before all those suspicious, gloating eyes was hideous to him.
No, no! To defend a suit only made a London holiday, and sold the
newspapers. A thousand times better accept what Soames and the gods had
sent!

'Besides,' he thought honestly, 'who knows whether, even for my boy's
sake, I could have stood this state of things much longer? Anyway, her
neck will be out of chancery at last!' Thus absorbed, he was hardly
conscious of the heavy heat. The sky had become overcast, purplish with
little streaks of white. A heavy heat-drop plashed a little star pattern
in the dust of the road as he entered the Park. 'Phew!' he thought,
'thunder! I hope she's not come to meet me; there's a ducking up there!'
But at that very minute he saw Irene coming towards the Gate. 'We must
scuttle back to Robin Hill,' he thought.

*****

The storm had passed over the Poultry at four o'clock, bringing welcome
distraction to the clerks in every office. Soames was drinking a cup of
tea when a note was brought in to him:

"DEAR SIR,

"Forsyte v. Forsyte and Forsyte

"In accordanc