per cent. in the Consols to which their father had mostly tied the
Settlements they made to avoid death duties, and the six of them who had
been reproduced had seventeen children, or just the proper two and
five-sixths per stem.

There were other reasons, too, for this mild reproduction. A distrust of
their earning powers, natural where a sufficiency is guaranteed, together
with the knowledge that their fathers did not die, kept them cautious.
If one had children and not much income, the standard of taste and
comfort must of necessity go down; what was enough for two was not enough
for four, and so on--it would be better to wait and see what Father did.
Besides, it was nice to be able to take holidays unhampered. Sooner in
fact than own children, they preferred to concentrate on the ownership of
themselves, conforming to the growing tendency fin de siecle, as it was
called. In this way, little risk was run, and one would be able to have
a motor-car. Indeed, Eustace already had one, but it had shaken him
horribly, and broken one of his eye teeth; so that it would be better to
wait till they were a little safer. In the meantime, no more children!
Even young Nicholas was drawing in his horns, and had made no addition to
his six for quite three years.

The corporate decay, however, of the Forsytes, their dispersion rather,
of which all this was symptomatic, had not advanced so far as to prevent
a rally when Roger Forsyte died in 1899. It had been a glorious summer,
and after holidays abroad and at the sea they were practically all back
in London, when Roger with a touch of his old originality had suddenly
breathed his last at his own house in Princes Gardens. At Timothy's it
was whispered sadly that poor Roger had always been eccentric about his
digestion--had he not, for instance, preferred German mutton to all the
other brands?

Be that as it may, his funeral at Highgate had been perfect, and coming
away from it Soames Forsyte made almost mechanically for his Uncle
Timothy's in the Bayswater Road. The 'Old Things'--Aunt Juley and Aunt
Hester--would like to hear about it. His father--James--at eighty-eight
had not felt up to the fatigue of the funeral; and Timothy himself, of
course, had not gone; so that Nicholas had been the only brother present.
Still, there had been a fair gathering; and it would cheer Aunts Juley
and Hester up to know. The kindly thought was not unmixed with the
inevitable longing to get