of this letter cannot, of course, be told,
though it is not improbable that Bosinney may have been moved by some
sudden revolt against his position towards Soames--that eternal position
of Art towards Property--which is so admirably summed up, on the back of
the most indispensable of modern appliances, in a sentence comparable to
the very finest in Tacitus:

THOS. T. SORROW, Inventor. BERT M. PADLAND, Proprietor.

"What are you going to say to him?" James asked.

Soames did not even turn his head. "I haven't made up my mind," he said,
and went on with his defence.

A client of his, having put some buildings on a piece of ground that did
not belong to him, had been suddenly and most irritatingly warned to take
them off again. After carefully going into the facts, however, Soames
had seen his way to advise that his client had what was known as a title
by possession, and that, though undoubtedly the ground did not belong to
him, he was entitled to keep it, and had better do so; and he was now
following up this advice by taking steps to--as the sailors say--'make
it so.'

He had a distinct reputation for sound advice; people saying of him: "Go
to young Forsyte--a long-headed fellow!" and he prized this reputation
highly.

His natural taciturnity was in his favour; nothing could be more
calculated to give people, especially people with property (Soames had no
other clients), the impression that he was a safe man. And he was safe.
Tradition, habit, education, inherited aptitude, native caution, all
joined to form a solid professional honesty, superior to temptation--from
the very fact that it was built on an innate avoidance of risk. How
could he fall, when his soul abhorred circumstances which render a fall
possible--a man cannot fall off the floor!

And those countless Forsytes, who, in the course of innumerable
transactions concerned with property of all sorts (from wives to water
rights), had occasion for the services of a safe man, found it both
reposeful and profitable to confide in Soames. That slight
superciliousness of his, combined with an air of mousing amongst
precedents, was in his favour too--a man would not be supercilious unless
he knew!

He was really at the head of the business, for though James still came
nearly every day to, see for himself, he did little now but sit in his
chair, twist his legs, slightly confuse things already decided, and
presently go away again, and the other partner,