“I shouldn’t wonder a bit!” he agreed; “and if he goes bankrupt, the ’man of property’—­that is, Soames’ll be out of pocket.  Now, what I was thinking was this:  If he’s not going to live there....”

Seeing both surprise and suspicion in James’ eye, he quickly went on:  “I don’t want to know anything; I suppose Irene’s put her foot down—­it’s not material to me.  But I’m thinking of a house in the country myself, not too far from London, and if it suited me I don’t say that I mightn’t look at it, at a price.”

James listened to this statement with a strange mixture of doubt, suspicion, and relief, merging into a dread of something behind, and tinged with the remains of his old undoubted reliance upon his elder brother’s good faith and judgment.  There was anxiety, too, as to what old Jolyon could have heard and how he had heard it; and a sort of hopefulness arising from the thought that if June’s connection with Bosinney were completely at an end, her grandfather would hardly seem anxious to help the young fellow.  Altogether he was puzzled; as he did not like either to show this, or to commit himself in any way, he said: 

“They tell me you’re altering your Will in favour of your son.”

He had not been told this; he had merely added the fact of having seen old Jolyon with his son and grandchildren to the fact that he had taken his Will away from Forsyte, Bustard and Forsyte.  The shot went home.

“Who told you that?” asked old Jolyon.

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said James; “I can’t remember names—­I know somebody told me Soames spent a lot of money on this house; he’s not likely to part with it except at a good price.”

“Well,” said old Jolyon, “if, he thinks I’m going to pay a fancy price, he’s mistaken.  I’ve not got the money to throw away that he seems to have.  Let him try and sell it at a forced sale, and see what he’ll get.  It’s not every man’s house, I hear!”

James, who was secretly also of this opinion, answered:  “It’s a gentleman’s house.  Soames is here now if you’d like to see him.”

“No,” said old Jolyon, “I haven’t got as far as that; and I’m not likely to, I can see that very well if I’m met in this manner!”

James was a little cowed; when it came to the actual figures of a commercial transaction he was sure of himself, for then he was dealing with facts, not with men; but preliminary negotiations such as these made him nervous—­he never knew quite how far he could go.

“Well,” he said, “I know nothing about it.  Soames, he tells me nothing; I should think he’d entertain it—­it’s a question of price.”

“Oh!” said old Jolyon, “don’t let him make a favour of it!” He placed his hat on his head in dudgeon.

The door was opened and Soames came in.

“There’s a policeman out here,” he said with his half smile, “for Uncle Jolyon.”

Old Jolyon looked at him angrily, and James said:  “A policeman?  I don’t know anything about a policeman.  But I suppose you know something about him,” he added to old Jolyon with a look of suspicion:  “I suppose you’d better see him!”