Suspended animation went further; it invaded Forsyte ’Change, and produced a general uncertainty as to what was going to happen next. The announcement in the marriage column of the Times , “Jolyon Forsyte to Irene, only daughter of the late Professor Heron,” had occasioned doubt whether Irene had been justly described. And yet, on the whole, relief was felt that she had not been entered as “Irene, late the wife,” or “the divorced wife,” “of Soames Forsyte.” Altogether, there had been a kind of sublimity from the first about the way the family had taken that “affair.” As James had phrased it, “There it was!” No use to fuss! Nothing to be had out of admitting that it had been a “nasty jar”⁠—in the phraseology of the day.

But what would happen now that both Soames and Jolyon were married again? That was very intriguing. George was known to have laid Eustace six to four on a little Jolyon before a little Soames. George was so droll! It was rumoured, too, that he and Dartie had a bet as to whether James would attain the age of ninety, though which of them had backed James no one knew.