, with an affectionate and ironical smile twisting up an
eyebrow and curling his lips a little. And he was always careful to have
money in his pocket, and to be modish in his dress, so that his son need
not blush for him. They were perfect friends, but never seemed to have
occasion for verbal confidences, both having the competitive
self-consciousness of Forsytes. They knew they would stand by each other
in scrapes, but there was no need to talk about it. Jolyon had a
striking horror--partly original sin, but partly the result of his early
immorality--of the moral attitude. The most he could ever have said to
his son would have been:

"Look here, old man; don't forget you're a gentleman," and then have
wondered whimsically whether that was not a snobbish sentiment. The
great cricket match was perhaps the most searching and awkward time they
annually went through together, for Jolyon had been at Eton. They would
be particularly careful during that match, continually saying: "Hooray!
Oh! hard luck, old man!" or "Hooray! Oh! bad luck, Dad!" to each other,
when some disaster at which their hearts bounded happened to the opposing
school. And Jolyon would wear a grey top hat, instead of his usual soft
one, to save his son's feelings, for a black top hat he could not
stomach. When Jolly went up to Oxford, Jolyon went up with him, amused,
humble, and a little anxious not to discredit his boy amongst all these
youths who seemed so much more assured and old than himself. He often
thought, 'Glad I'm a painter' for he had long dropped under-writing at
Lloyds--'it's so innocuous. You can't look down on a painter--you can't
take him seriously enough.' For Jolly, who had a sort of natural
lordliness, had passed at once into a very small set, who secretly amused
his father. The boy had fair hair which curled a little, and his
grandfather's deepset iron-grey eyes. He was well-built and very
upright, and always pleased Jolyon's aesthetic sense, so that he was a
tiny bit afraid of him, as artists ever are of those of their own sex
whom they admire physically. On that occasion, however, he actually did
screw up his courage to give his son advice, and this was it:

"Look here, old man, you're bound to get into debt; mind you come to me
at once. Of course, I'll always pay them. But you might remember that
one respects oneself more afterwards if one pays one's own way. And
don't ever borrow, except from me, will you?"

And