of distrust, the object of which was undoubtedly the man whose acquaintance they were thus assembled to make.  Philip Bosinney was known to be a young man without fortune, but Forsyte girls had become engaged to such before, and had actually married them.  It was not altogether for this reason, therefore, that the minds of the Forsytes misgave them.  They could not have explained the origin of a misgiving obscured by the mist of family gossip.  A story was undoubtedly told that he had paid his duty call to Aunts Ann, Juley, and Hester, in a soft grey hat—­a soft grey hat, not even a new one—­a dusty thing with a shapeless crown.  “So, extraordinary, my dear—­so odd,” Aunt Hester, passing through the little, dark hall (she was rather short-sighted), had tried to ‘shoo’ it off a chair, taking it for a strange, disreputable cat—­Tommy had such disgraceful friends!  She was disturbed when it did not move.

Like an artist for ever seeking to discover the significant trifle which embodies the whole character of a scene, or place, or person, so those unconscious artists—­the Forsytes had fastened by intuition on this hat; it was their significant trifle, the detail in which was embedded the meaning of the whole matter; for each had asked himself:  “Come, now, should I have paid that visit in that hat?” and each had answered “No!” and some, with more imagination than others, had added:  “It would never have come into my head!”

George, on hearing the story, grinned.  The hat had obviously been worn as a practical joke!  He himself was a connoisseur of such.  “Very haughty!” he said, “the wild Buccaneer.”

And this mot, the ‘Buccaneer,’ was bandied from mouth to mouth, till it became the favourite mode of alluding to Bosinney.

Her aunts reproached June afterwards about the hat.

“We don’t think you ought to let him, dear!” they had said.

June had answered in her imperious brisk way, like the little embodiment of will she was:  “Oh! what does it matter?  Phil never knows what he’s got on!”

No one had credited an answer so outrageous.  A man not to know what he had on?  No, no!  What indeed was this young man, who, in becoming engaged to June, old Jolyon’s acknowledged heiress, had done so well for himself?  He was an architect, not in itself a sufficient reason for wearing such a hat.  None of the Forsytes happened to be architects, but one of them knew two architects who would never have worn such a hat upon a call of ceremony in the London season.

Dangerous—­ah, dangerous!  June, of course, had not seen this, but, though not yet nineteen, she was notorious.  Had she not said to Mrs. Soames—­who was always so beautifully dressed—­that feathers were vulgar?  Mrs. Soames had actually given up wearing feathers, so dreadfully downright was dear June!

These misgivings, this disapproval, and perfectly genuine distrust, did not prevent the Forsytes from gathering to old Jolyon’s invitation.  An ‘At Home’ at Stanhope Gate was a great rarity; none had been held for twelve years, not indeed, since old Mrs. Jolyon had died.