His grandfather's voice travelled to him thinly."Val,try a little of the Madeira with your ice.You won't get that up at college."Val watched the slow liquid filling his glass,the essential oil of the old wine glazing the surface;inhaled its aroma,and thought:
'Now for it!'It was a rich moment.He sipped,and a gentle glow spread in his veins,already heated.With a rapid look round,he said,"I joined the Imperial Yeomanry to-day,Granny,"and emptied his glass as though drinking the health of his own act.
"What!"It was his mother's desolate little word.
"Young Jolly Forsyte and I went down there together.""You didn't sign?"from Uncle Soames.
"Rather!We go into camp on Monday."
"I say!"cried Imogen.
All looked at James.He was leaning forward with his hand behind his ear.
"What's that?"he said."What's he saying?I can't hear."Emily reached forward to pat Val's hand.
"It's only that Val has joined the Yeomanry,James;it's very nice for him.He'll look his best in uniform.""Joined the--rubbish!"came from James,tremulously loud."You can't see two yards before your nose.He--he'll have to go out there.Why!he'll be fighting before he knows where he is."Val saw Imogen's eyes admiring him,and his mother still and fashionable with her handkerchief before her lips.
Suddenly his uncle spoke.
"You're under age."
"I thought of that,"smiled Val;"I gave my age as twenty-one."He heard his grandmother's admiring,"Well,Val,that was plucky of you;"was conscious of Warmson deferentially filling his champagne glass;and of his grandfather's voice moaning:"I don't know what'll become of you if you go on like this."Imogen was patting his shoulder,his uncle looking at him sidelong;only his mother sat unmoving,till,affected by her stillness,Val said:
"It's all right,you know;we shall soon have them on the run.Ionly hope I shall come in for something."
He felt elated,sorry,tremendously important all at once.This would show Uncle Soames,and all the Forsytes,how to be sportsmen.
He had certainly done something heroic and exceptional in giving his age as twenty-one.
Emily's voice brought him back to earth.
"You mustn't have a second glass,James.Warmson!""Won't they be astonished at Timothy's!"burst out Imogen."I'd give anything to see their faces.Do you have a sword,Val,or only a popgun?""What made you?"
His uncle's voice produced a slight chill in the pit of Val's stomach.Made him?How answer that?He was grateful for his grandmother's comfortable:
"Well,I think it's very plucky of Val.I'm sure he'll make a splendid soldier;he's just the figure for it.We shall all be proud of him.""What had young Jolly Forsyte to do with it?Why did you go together?"pursued Soames,uncannily relentless."I thought you weren't friendly with him?""I'm not,"mumbled Val,"but I wasn't going to be beaten by him."He saw his uncle look at him quite differently,as if approving.
His grandfather was nodding too,his grandmother tossing her head.
They all approved of his not being beaten by that cousin of his.
There must be a reason!Val was dimly conscious of some disturbing point outside his range of vision;as it might be,the unlocated centre of a cyclone.And,staring at his uncle's face,he had a quite unaccountable vision of a woman with dark eyes,gold hair,and a white neck,who smelt nice,and had pretty silken clothes which he had liked feeling when he was quite small.By Jove,yes!
Aunt Irene!She used to kiss him,and he had bitten her arm once,playfully,because he liked it--so soft.His grandfather was speaking:
"What's his father doing?"
"He's away in Paris,"Val said,staring at the very queer expression on his uncle's face,like--like that of a snarling dog.
"Artists!"said James.The word coming from the very bottom of his soul,broke up the dinner.
Opposite his mother in the cab going home,Val tasted the after-fruits of heroism,like medlars over-ripe.
She only said,indeed,that he must go to his tailor's at once and have his uniform properly made,and not just put up with what they gave him.But he could feel that she was very much upset.It was on his lips to console her with the spoken thought that he would be out of the way of that beastly divorce,but the presence of Imogen,and the knowledge that his mother would not be out of the way,restrained him.He felt aggrieved that she did not seem more proud of him.When Imogen had gone to bed,he risked the emotional.
"I'm awfully sorry to have to leave you,Mother.""Well,I must make the best of it.We must try and get you a commission as soon as we can;then you won't have to rough it so.
Do you know any drill,Val?"
"Not a scrap."
"I hope they won't worry you much.I must take you about to get the things to-morrow.Good-night;kiss me."With that kiss,soft and hot,between his eyes,and those words,'Ihope they won't worry you much,'in his ears,he sat down to a cigarette,before a dying fire.The heat was out of him--the glow of cutting a dash.It was all a damned heart-aching bore.'I'll be even with that chap Jolly,'he thought,trailing up the stairs,past the room where his mother was biting her pillow to smother a sense of desolation which was trying to make her sob.
And soon only one of the diners at James'was awake--Soames,in his bedroom above his father's.
So that fellow Jolyon was in Paris--what was he doing there?
Hanging round Irene!The last report from Polteed had hinted that there might be something soon.Could it be this?That fellow,with his beard and his cursed amused way of speaking--son of the old man who had given him the nickname 'Man of Property,'and bought the fatal house from him.Soames had ever resented having had to sell the house at Robin Hill;never forgiven his uncle for having bought it,or his cousin for living in it.
Reckless of the cold,he threw his window up and gazed out across the Park.Bleak and dark the January night;little sound of traffic;a frost coming;bare trees;a star or two.'I'll see Polteed to-morrow,'he thought.'By God!I'm mad,I think,to want her still.That fellow!If.?Um!No!'