第29章

Young Val smiled--his wide,rather charming smile.Beyond that he did not go--not yet convinced.The Forsyte in him stood out for greater certainty.And on the stage the ballet whirled its kaleidoscope of snow-white,salmon-pink,and emerald-green and violet and seemed suddenly to freeze into a stilly spangled pyramid.Applause broke out,and it was over!Maroon curtains had cut it off.The semi-circle of men and women round the barrier broke up,the young woman's arm pressed his.A little way off disturbance seemed centring round a man with a pink carnation;Val stole another glance at the young woman,who was looking towards it.Three men,unsteady,emerged,walking arm in arm.The one in the centre wore the pink carnation,a white waistcoat,a dark moustache;he reeled a little as he walked.Crum's voice said slow and level:"Look at that bounder,he's screwed!"Val turned to look.The 'bounder'had disengaged his arm,and was pointing straight at them.Crum's voice,level as ever,said:

"He seems to know you!"The 'bounder'spoke:

"H'llo!"he said."You f'llows,look!There's my young rascal of a son!"Val saw.It was his father!He could have sunk into the crimson carpet.It was not the meeting in this place,not even that his father was 'screwed';it was Crum's word 'bounder,'which,as by heavenly revelation,he perceived at that moment to be true.Yes,his father looked a bounder with his dark good looks,and his pink carnation,and his square,self-assertive walk.And without a word he ducked behind the young woman and slipped out of the Promenade.

He heard the word,"Val!"behind him,and ran down deep-carpeted steps past the 'chuckersout,'into the Square.

To be ashamed of his own father is perhaps the bitterest experience a young man can go through.It seemed to Val,hurrying away,that his career had ended before it had begun.How could he go up to Oxford now amongst all those chaps,those splendid friends of Crum's,who would know that his father was a 'bounder'!And suddenly he hated Crum.Who the devil was Crum,to say that?If Crum had been beside him at that moment,he would certainly have been jostled off the pavement.His own father--his own!A choke came up in his throat,and he dashed his hands down deep into his overcoat pockets.Damn Crum!He conceived the wild idea of running back and fending his father,taking him by the arm and walking about with him in front of Crum;but gave it up at once and pursued his way down Piccadilly.A young woman planted herself before him."Not so angry,darling!"He shied,dodged her,and suddenly became quite cool.If Crum ever said a word,he would jolly well punch his head,and there would be an end of it.He walked a hundred yards or more,contented with that thought,then lost its comfort utterly.It wasn't simple like that!He remembered how,at school,when some parent came down who did not pass the standard,it just clung to the fellow afterwards.It was one of those things nothing could remove.Why had his mother married his father,if he was a 'bounder'?It was bitterly unfair--jolly low-down on a fellow to give him a 'bounder'for father.

The worst of it was that now Crum had spoken the word,he realised that he had long known subconsciously that his father was not 'the clean potato.'It was the beastliest thing that had ever happened to him--beastliest thing that had ever happened to any fellow!

And,down-hearted as he had never yet been,he came to Green Street,and let himself in with a smuggled latch-key.In the dining-room his plover's eggs were set invitingly,with some cut bread and butter,and a little whisky at the bottom of a decanter--just enough,as Winifred had thought,for him to feel himself a man.It made him sick to look at them,and he went upstairs.

Winifred heard him pass,and thought:'The dear boy's in.Thank goodness!If he takes after his father I don't know what I shall do!But he won't he's like me.Dear Val!'