He had hardly seen anything of her since it began. A bad business! He had no notion of giving her a lot of money toenable a fellow he knew nothing about to live on in idleness. He had seen that sort of thing before; no good ever came ofit. Worst of all, he had no hope of shaking her resolution; she was as obstinate as a mule, always had been from a child. Hedidn’t see where it was to end. They must cut their coat according to their cloth. He would not give way till he saw youngBosinney with an income of his own. That June would have trouble with the fellow was as plain as a pikestaff; he had no moreidea of money than a cow. As to this rushing down to Wales to visit the young man’s aunts, he fully expected they were oldcats.

And, motionless, old Jolyon stared at the wall; but for his open eyes, he might have been asleep.... The idea ofsupposing that young cub Soames could give him advice! He had always been a cub, with his nose in the air! He would besetting up as a man of property next, with a place in the country! A man of property! H’mph! Like his father, he was alwaysnosing out bargains, a cold-blooded young beggar!

He rose, and, going to the cabinet, began methodically stocking his cigar-case from a bundle fresh in. They were not badat the price, but you couldn’t get a good cigar, nowadays, nothing to hold a candle to those old Superfinos of Hanson andBridger’s. That was a cigar!

The thought, like some stealing perfume, carried him back to those wonderful nights at Richmond when after dinner he satsmoking on the terrace of the Crown and Sceptre with Nicholas Treffry and Traquair and Jack Herring and Anthony Thornworthy.How good his cigars were then! Poor old Nick!— dead, and Jack Herring — dead, and Traquair — dead of that wife of his, andThornworthy — awfully shaky (no wonder, with his appetite).

Of all the company of those days he himself alone seemed left, except Swithin, of course, and he so outrageously bigthere was no doing anything with him.