"Yes; many lives ago."
"What is your recipe for youth, Irene?"
"People who don't live are wonderfully preserved."
H'm! a bitter little saying! People who don't live! But an opening, and
he took it. "You remember my Cousin Soames?"
He saw her smile faintly at that whimsicality, and at once went on:
"He came to see me the day before yesterday! He wants a divorce. Do
you?"
"I?" The word seemed startled out of her. "After twelve years? It's
rather late. Won't it be difficult?"
Jolyon looked hard into her face. "Unless...." he said.
"Unless I have a lover now. But I have never had one since."
What did he feel at the simplicity and candour of those words? Relief,
surprise, pity! Venus for twelve years without a lover!
"And yet," he said, "I suppose you would give a good deal to be free,
too?"
"I don't know. What does it matter, now?"
"But if you were to love again?"
"I should love." In that simple answer she seemed to sum up the whole
philosophy of one on whom the world had turned its back.
"Well! Is there anything you would like me to say to him?"
"Only that I'm sorry he's not free. He had his chance once. I don't know
why he didn't take it."
"Because he was a Forsyte; we never part with things, you know, unless
we want something in their place; and not always then."
Irene smiled. "Don't you, Cousin Jolyon?--I think you do."
"Of course, I'm a bit of a mongrel--not quite a pure Forsyte. I never
take the halfpennies off my cheques, I put them on," said Jolyon
uneasily.
"Well, what does Soames want in place of me now?"
"I don't know; perhaps children."
She was silent for a little, looking down.
"Yes," she murmured; "it's hard. I would help him to be free if I
could."
Jolyon gazed into his hat, his embarrassment was increasing fast; so
was his admiration, his wonder, and his pity. She was so lovely, and so
lonely; and altogether it was such a coil!
"Well," he said, "I shall have to see Soames. If there's anything I
can do for you I'm always at your service. You must think of me as a
wretched substitute for my father. At all events I'll let you know what
happens when I speak to Soames. He may supply the material himself."
She shook her head.
"You see, he has a lot to lose; and I have nothing. I should like him to
be free; but I don't see what I can do."
"Nor I at the moment," said Jolyon, and soon after took his leave. He
went down to his hansom. Half-past three! Soames would be at his office
still.