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

Difficult to believe it was so long ago; he felt young still!  Of all his thoughts, as he stood there counting his cigars, this was the most poignant, the most bitter.  With his white head and his loneliness he had remained young and green at heart.  And those Sunday afternoons on Hampstead Heath, when young Jolyon and he went for a stretch along the Spaniard’s Road to Highgate, to Child’s Hill, and back over the Heath again to dine at Jack Straw’s Castle—­how delicious his cigars were then!  And such weather!  There was no weather now.

When June was a toddler of five, and every other Sunday he took her to the Zoo, away from the society of those two good women, her mother and her grandmother, and at the top of the bear den baited his umbrella with buns for her favourite bears, how sweet his cigars were then!

Cigars!  He had not even succeeded in out-living his palate—­the famous palate that in the fifties men swore by, and speaking of him, said:  “Forsyte’s the best palate in London!” The palate that in a sense had made his fortune—­the fortune of the celebrated tea men, Forsyte and Treffry, whose tea, like no other man’s tea, had a romantic aroma, the charm of a quite singular genuineness.  About the house of Forsyte and Treffry in the City had clung an air of enterprise and mystery, of special dealings in special ships, at special ports, with special Orientals.

He had worked at that business!  Men did work in those days! these young pups hardly knew the meaning of the word.  He had gone into every detail, known everything that went on, sometimes sat up all night over it.  And he had always chosen his agents himself, prided himself on it.  His eye for men, he used to say, had been the secret of his success, and the exercise of this masterful power of selection had been the only part of it all that he had really liked.  Not a career for a man of his ability.  Even now, when the business had been turned into a Limited Liability Company, and was declining (he had got out of his shares long ago), he felt a sharp chagrin in thinking of that time.  How much better he might have done!  He would have succeeded splendidly at the Bar!  He had even thought of standing for Parliament.  How often had not Nicholas Treffry said to him: 

“You could do anything, Jo, if you weren’t so d-damned careful of yourself!” Dear old Nick!  Such a good fellow, but a racketty chap!  The notorious Treffry!  He had never taken any care of himself.  So he was dead.  Old Jolyon counted his cigars with a steady hand, and it came into his mind to wonder if perhaps he had been too careful of himself.

He put the cigar-case in the breast of his coat, buttoned it in, and walked up the long flights to his bedroom, leaning on one foot and the other, and helping himself by the bannister.  The house was too big.  After June was married, if she ever did marry this fellow, as he supposed she would, he would let it and go into rooms.  What was the use of keeping half a dozen servants eating their heads off?