“Well,” he said, “they brought me up to do nothing, and here I am in the sere and yellow, getting poorer every day. TheseLabour chaps mean to have the lot before they’ve done. What are you going to do for a living when it comes? I shall work asix-hour day teaching politicians how to see a joke. Take my tip, Soames; go into Parliament, make sure of your four hundred— and employ me.”

And, as Soames retired, he resumed his seat in the bay window.

Soames moved along Piccadilly deep in reflections excited by his cousin’s words. He himself had always been a worker anda saver, George always a drone and a spender; and yet, if confiscation once began, it was he — the worker and the saver —who would be looted! That was the negation of all virtue, the overturning of all Forsyte principles. Could civilisation bebuilt on any other? He did not think so. Well, they wouldn’t confiscate his pictures, for they wouldn’t know their worth.But what would they be worth, if these maniacs once began to milk capital? A drug on the market. ‘I don’t care aboutmyself,’ he thought; ‘I could live on five hundred a year, and never know the difference, at my age.’ But Fleur! Thisfortune, so wisely invested, these treasures so carefully chosen and amassed, were all for her. And if it should turn outthat he couldn’t give or leave them to her — well, life had no meaning, and what was the use of going in to look at thiscrazy, futuristic stuff with the view of seeing whether it had any future?

Arriving at the Gallery off Cork Street, however, he paid his shilling, picked up a catalogue, and entered. Some tenpersons were prowling round. Soames took steps and came on what looked to him like a lamp-post bent by collision with amotor omnibus. It was advanced some three paces from the wall, and was described in his catalogue as “Jupiter.” He examinedit with curiosity, having recently turned some of his attention to sculpture. ‘If that’s Jupiter,’ he thought, ‘I wonderwhat Juno’s like.’ And suddenly he saw her, opposite. She appeared to him like nothing so much as a pump with two handles,lightly clad in snow. He was still gazing at her, when two of the prowlers halted on his left. “Epatant!” he heard onesay.