Jolyon,Swithin,Roger all gone,and he would be ninety in August!
And there was Soames married again to a French girl.The French were a queer lot,but they made good mothers,he had heard.Things changed!They said this German Emperor was here for the funeral,his telegram to old Kruger had been in shocking taste.He should not be surprised if that chap made trouble some day.Change!H'm!
Well,they must look after themselves when he was gone:he didn't know where he'd be!And now Emily had asked Dartie to lunch,with Winifred and Imogen,to meet Soames'wife--she was always doing something.And there was Irene living with that fellow Jolyon,they said.He'd marry her now,he supposed.
'My brother Jolyon,'he thought,'what would he have said to it all?'And somehow the utter impossibility of knowing what his elder brother,once so looked up to,would have said,so worried James that he got up from his chair by the window,and began slowly,feebly to pace the room.