After all,if he lost it would not be he who paid,and to 'lay it off'would reduce his winnings to some fifteen hundred--hardly enough to purchase a dancer out and out.Even more potent was the itch in the blood of all the Darties for a real flutter.And turning to George he said:"She's a clipper.She'll win hands down;I shall go the whole hog."George,who had laid off every penny,and a few besides,and stood to win,however it came out,grinned down on him from his bulky height,with the words:"So ho,my wild one!"for after a chequered apprenticeship weathered with the money of a deeply complaining Roger,his Forsyte blood was beginning to stand him in good stead in the profession of owner.
There are moments of disillusionment in the lives of men from which the sensitive recorder shrinks.Suffice it to say that the good thing fell down.Sleeve-links finished in the ruck.Dartie's shirt was lost.
Between the passing of these things and the day when Soames turned his face towards Green Street,what had not happened!
When a man with the constitution of Montague Dartie has exercised self-control for months from religious motives,and remains un-rewarded,he does not curse God and die,he curses God and lives,to the distress of his family.