Indian Summer of a Forsyte

Indian Summer of a Forsyte

Episode 1

In the last day of May in the early 'nineties,about six o'clock of the evening,old Jolyon Forsyte sat under the oak tree below the terrace of his house at Robin Hill.He was waiting for the midges to bite him,before abandoning the glory of the afternoon.His thin brown hand,where blue veins stood out,held the end of a cigar in its tapering,long-nailed fingers--a pointed polished nail had survived with him from those earlier Victorian days when to touch nothing,even with the tips of the fingers,had been so distinguished.His domed forehead,great white moustache,lean cheeks,and long lean jaw were covered from the westering sunshine by an old brown Panama hat.His legs were crossed;in all his attitude was serenity and a kind of elegance,as of an old man who every morning put eau de Cologne upon his silk handkerchief.At his feet lay a woolly brown-and-white dog trying to be a Pomeranian--the dog Balthasar between whom and old Jolyon primal aver-sion had changed into attachment with the years.Close to his chair was a swing,and on the swing was seated one of Holly's dolls --called 'Duffer Alice'--with her body fallen over her legs and her doleful nose buried in a black petticoat.She was never out of disgrace,so it did not matter to her how she sat.Below the oak tree the lawn dipped down a bank,stretched to the fernery,and,beyond that refinement,became fields,dropping to the pond,the coppice,and the prospect 'Fine,remarkable'--at which Swithin Forsyte,from under this very tree,had stared five years ago when he drove down with Irene to look at the house.Old Jolyon had heard of his brother's exploit--that drive which had become quite celebrated on Forsyte 'Change.'Swithin!And the fellow had gone and died,last November,at the age of only seventy-nine,renewing the doubt whether Forsytes could live for ever,which had first arisen when Aunt Ann passed away.Died!and left only Jolyon and James,Roger and Nicholas and Timothy,Julia,Hester,Susan!And old Jolyon thought:'Eighty-five!I don't feel it--except when Iget that pain.'

His memory went searching.He had not felt his age since he had bought his nephew Soames'ill-starred house and settled into it here at Robin Hill over three years ago.It was as if he had been getting younger every spring,living in the country with his son and his grandchildren--June,and the little ones of the second marriage,Jolly and Holly;living down here out of the racket of London and the cackle of Forsyte 'Change,'free of his boards,in a delicious atmosphere of no work and all play,with plenty of occupation in the perfecting and mellowing of the house and its twenty acres,and in ministering to the whims of Holly and Jolly.

All the knots and crankiness,which had gathered in his heart during that long and tragic business of June,Soames,Irene his wife,and poor young Bosinney,had been smoothed out.Even June had thrown off her melancholy at last--witness this travel in Spain she was taking now with her father and her stepmother.Curiously perfect peace was left by their departure;blissful,yet blank,because his son was not there.Jo was never anything but a comfort and a pleasure to him nowadays--an amiable chap;but women,somehow--even the best--got a little on one's nerves,unless of course one admired them.

Far-off a cuckoo called;a wood-pigeon was cooing from the first elm-tree in the field,and how the daisies and buttercups had sprung up after the last mowing!The wind had got into the sou'-west,too--a delicious air,sappy!He pushed his hat back and let the sun fall on his chin and cheek.Somehow,to-day,he wanted company wanted a pretty face to look at.People treated the old as if they wanted nothing.And with the un-Forsytean philosophy which ever intruded on his soul,he thought:'One's never had enough'

With a foot in the grave one'll want something,I shouldn't be surprised!'Down here--away from the exigencies of affairs--his grandchildren,and the flowers,trees,birds of his little domain,to say nothing of sun and moon and stars above them,said,'Open,sesame,'to him day and night.And sesame had opened--how much,perhaps,he did not know.He had always been responsive to what they had begun to call 'Nature,'genuinely,almost religiously responsive,though he had never lost his habit of calling a sunset a sunset and a view a view,however deeply they might move him.

But nowadays Nature actually made him ache,he appreciated it so.

Episodes
1 Episode 1
2 Episode 2
3 Episode 3
4 Episode 4
5 Episode 5
6 Episode 6
7 Episode 7
8 Episode 8
9 Episode 9
10 Episode 10
11 Episode 11
12 Episode 12
13 Episode 13
14 Episode 14
15 Episode 15
16 Episode 16
17 Episode 17
18 Episode 18
19 Episode 19
20 Episode 20
21 Episode 21
22 Episode 22
23 Episode 23
24 Episode 24
25 Episode 25
26 Episode 26
27 Episode 27
28 Episode 28
29 Episode 29
30 Episode 30
31 Episode 31
32 Episode 32
33 Episode 33
34 Episode 34
35 Episode 35
36 Episode 36
37 Episode 37
38 Episode 38
39 Episode 39
40 Episode 40
41 Episode 41
42 Episode 42
43 Episode 43
44 Episode 44
45 Episode 45
46 Episode 46
47 Episode 47
48 Episode 48
49 Episode 49
50 Episode 50
51 Episode 51
52 Episode 52
53 Episode 53
54 Episode 54
55 Episode 55
56 Episode 56
57 Episode 57
58 Episode 58
59 Episode 59
60 Episode 60
61 Episode 61
62 Episode 62
63 Episode 63
64 Episode 64
65 Episode 65
66 Episode 66
67 Episode 67
68 Episode 68
69 Episode 69
70 Episode 70
71 Episode 71
72 Episode 72
73 Episode 73
74 Episode 74
75 Episode 75
76 Episode 76
77 Episode 77
78 Episode 78
79 Episode 79
80 Episode 80
81 Episode 81
82 Episode 82
83 Episode 83
84 Episode 84
85 Episode 85
86 Episode 86
87 Episode 87
88 Episode 88
89 Episode 89
90 Episode 90
91 Episode 91
92 Episode 92
93 Episode 93
94 Episode 94
95 Episode 95
96 Episode 96
97 Episode 97
98 Episode 98
99 Episode 99
100 Episode 100
101 Episode 101
102 Episode 102
103 Episode 103
104 Episode 104
105 Episode 105
106 Episode 106
107 Episode 107
108 Episode 108
109 Episode 109
110 Episode 110
111 Episode 111
112 Episode 112
113 Episode 113
114 Episode 114
115 Episode 115
116 Episode 116
117 Episode 117
118 Episode 118
119 Episode 119
120 Episode 120
121 Episode 121
122 Episode 122
123 Episode 123
124 Episode 124
125 Episode 125
126 Episode 126
127 Episode 127
128 Episode 128
Episodes

Updated 128 Episodes

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125
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126
Episode 126
127
Episode 127
128
Episode 128

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