Soon perhaps, someone else would be wanting an inscription.  It was strange and intolerable, for they had not thought somehow, that Forsytes could die.  And one and all they had a longing to get away from this painfulness, this ceremony which had reminded them of things they could not bear to think about—­to get away quickly and go about their business and forget.

It was cold, too; the wind, like some slow, disintegrating force, blowing up the hill over the graves, struck them with its chilly breath; they began to split into groups, and as quickly as possible to fill the waiting carriages.

Swithin said he should go back to lunch at Timothy’s, and he offered to take anybody with him in his brougham.  It was considered a doubtful privilege to drive with Swithin in his brougham, which was not a large one; nobody accepted, and he went off alone.  James and Roger followed immediately after; they also would drop in to lunch.  The others gradually melted away, Old Jolyon taking three nephews to fill up his carriage; he had a want of those young faces.

Soames, who had to arrange some details in the cemetery office, walked away with Bosinney.  He had much to talk over with him, and, having finished his business, they strolled to Hampstead, lunched together at the Spaniard’s Inn, and spent a long time in going into practical details connected with the building of the house; they then proceeded to the tram-line, and came as far as the Marble Arch, where Bosinney went off to Stanhope Gate to see June.

Soames felt in excellent spirits when he arrived home, and confided to Irene at dinner that he had had a good talk with Bosinney, who really seemed a sensible fellow; they had had a capital walk too, which had done his liver good—­he had been short of exercise for a long time—­and altogether a very satisfactory day.  If only it hadn’t been for poor Aunt Ann, he would have taken her to the theatre; as it was, they must make the best of an evening at home.

“The Buccaneer asked after you more than once,” he said suddenly.  And moved by some inexplicable desire to assert his proprietorship, he rose from his chair and planted a kiss on his wife’s shoulder.

PART II

CHAPTER I

PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE

The winter had been an open one.  Things in the trade were slack; and as Soames had reflected before making up his mind, it had been a good time for building.  The shell of the house at Robin Hill was thus completed by the end of April.

Now that there was something to be seen for his money, he had been coming down once, twice, even three times a week, and would mouse about among the debris for hours, careful never to soil his clothes, moving silently through the unfinished brickwork of doorways, or circling round the columns in the central court.