he was coming to lunch. There is
wonderful finality about a meal; it removes a world of doubts, for no one
misses meals except for reasons beyond control. He played many games
with Holly on the lawn, pitching them up to her who was batting so as to
be ready to bowl to Jolly in the holidays. For she was not a Forsyte,
but Jolly was--and Forsytes always bat, until they have resigned and
reached the age of eighty-five. The dog Balthasar, in attendance, lay on
the ball as often as he could, and the page-boy fielded, till his face
was like the harvest moon. And because the time was getting shorter,
each day was longer and more golden than the last. On Friday night he
took a liver pill, his side hurt him rather, and though it was not the
liver side, there is no remedy like that. Anyone telling him that he had
found a new excitement in life and that excitement was not good for him,
would have been met by one of those steady and rather defiant looks of
his deep-set iron-grey eyes, which seemed to say: 'I know my own business
best.' He always had and always would.

On Sunday morning, when Holly had gone with her governess to church, he
visited the strawberry beds. There, accompanied by the dog Balthasar, he
examined the plants narrowly and succeeded in finding at least two dozen
berries which were really ripe. Stooping was not good for him, and he
became very dizzy and red in the forehead. Having placed the
strawberries in a dish on the dining-table, he washed his hands and
bathed his forehead with eau de Cologne. There, before the mirror, it
occurred to him that he was thinner. What a 'threadpaper' he had been
when he was young! It was nice to be slim--he could not bear a fat chap;
and yet perhaps his cheeks were too thin! She was to arrive by train at
half-past twelve and walk up, entering from the road past Drage's farm at
the far end of the coppice. And, having looked into June's room to see
that there was hot water ready, he set forth to meet her, leisurely, for
his heart was beating. The air smelled sweet, larks sang, and the Grand
Stand at Epsom was visible. A perfect day! On just such a one, no
doubt, six years ago, Soames had brought young Bosinney down with him to
look at the site before they began to build. It was Bosinney who had
pitched on the exact spot for the house--as June had often told him. In
these days he was thinking much about that young fellow, as if his spirit
were really haunting the fie