Indian Summer of a Forsyte - In Chancery by John Galsworthy
page 26 of 433 (06%)
page 26 of 433 (06%)
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Old Jolyon looked round at her. Was she chaffing him? No, her eyes
were soft as velvet. Was she flattering him? But if so, why? There was nothing to be had out of an old chap like him. "Phil thought so. He used to say: 'But I can never tell him that I admire him.'" Ah! There it was again. Her dead lover; her desire to talk of him! And he pressed her arm, half resentful of those memories, half grateful, as if he recognised what a link they were between herself and him. "He was a very talented young fellow," he murmured. "It's hot; I feel the heat nowadays. Let's sit down." They took two chairs beneath a chestnut tree whose broad leaves covered them from the peaceful glory of the afternoon. A pleasure to sit there and watch her, and feel that she liked to be with him. And the wish to increase that liking, if he could, made him go on: "I expect he showed you a side of him I never saw. He'd be at his best with you. His ideas of art were a little new--to me "--he had stiffed the word 'fangled.' "Yes: but he used to say you had a real sense of beauty." Old Jolyon thought: 'The devil he did!' but answered with a twinkle: "Well, I have, or I shouldn't be sitting here with you." She was fascinating when she smiled with her eyes, like that! "He thought you had one of those hearts that never grow old. Phil had real insight." |
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