The Forsyte Saga

(The Man of Property)

By John Galsworthy

A

t five o’clock the following day old Jolyon sat alone, a cigar between his lips, and on a table by his side a cup of tea. He was tired, and before he had finished his cigar he fell asleep. A fly settled on his hair, his breathing sounded heavy in the drowsy silence, his upper lip under the white moustache puffed in and out. From between the fingers of his veined and wrinkled hand the cigar, dropping on the empty hearth, burned itself out.

      The gloomy little study, with windows of stained glass to exclude the view, was full of dark green velvet and heavily-carved mahogany—a suite of which old Jolyon was wont to say: “Shouldn’t wonder if it made a big price some day!”

      It was pleasant to think that in the after life he could get more for things than he had given.

      In the rich brown atmosphere peculiar to back rooms in the mansion of a Forsyte, the Rembrandtesque effect of his great head, with its white hair, against the cushion of his high-backed seat, was spoiled by the moustache, which imparted a somewhat military look to his face. An old clock that had been with him since before his marriage fifty years ago kept with its ticking a jealous record of the seconds slipping away for ever from its old master.

      He had never cared for this room, hardly going into it from one year’s end to another, except to take cigars from the Japanese cabinet in the corner, and the room now had its revenge.

      His temples, curving like thatches over the hollows beneath, his cheekbones and skin, all were sharpened in his sleep, and there had come upon his face the confession that he was an old man.

NOTES AND EXERCISES:

1.   Pronounce the following words paying particular attention to the digraph “ch”: moustache, machine, chauffeur, chivalry, chagrin, brochure, chic, champagne, chandelier, barouche, attaché, cartouche, nonchalant, Michigan, Chicago, sandwich, spinach, Greenwich, Norwich.

2.   Read the following words paying attention to the pronunciation of the “s” and “ss” and learn them:

pension	excursion	adhesion	Asia	usury	confession
tension	division	invasion	Asian	treasure	compulsion
mansion	Russian	allusion	Asiatic	treasury	issue
dimension	decision	magnesia	pleasure	usual	tissue
inversion	censure	precision	measure	usurer	bassoon
vision	sensual	television	exposure	hosier	dissolve
scissors	pressure	profession	admission	misstate	discussion
dessert	fissure	impression	misspell	missuit	dissever
desert	hussar	passion	accession	dissatisfy	possess

3.   Read the following words paying attention to the pronunciation of the digraph “ea”: breathing, hearth, health, pleasant, beneath, stealth, death, dream, break, Ronald Reagan.

4.   Learn the following cognate words:

exclude	exclusion	exclusive
include	inclusion	inclusive
conclude	conclusion	conclusive
preclude	preclusion	preclusive

5.   Word study:

thatch                     roof covering of dried straw, reeds, etc.; thick hair of the head (colloq.); to cover a roof with a thatch

after-life                  the life believed to follow death; the later part of somebody’s lifetime, especially after a particular event

after-effect             effect that occurs afterward, e.g. a delayed effect of a drug used medically

afterglow                a glow in the sky after sunset

aftermath                crop from the second growth (after the hay harvest) (used of grass); outcome, consequence: Misery is usually the aftermath of war.

afterthought           reflection afterwards, a thought that comes afterwards

Rembrandtesque   characteristic of the paintings of Rembrandt

stained glass          glass made by mixing into it transparent colours during the process of manufacture (stained glass windows in a church)

6.   The following adjectives which are derived from nouns denoting names of countries end in

      “–ese”: Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Congolese.

7.   Translate the following expressions and use them in sentences of your own:

      to keep record of the seconds (to count down the seconds), to keep house, to keep something to oneself, to keep a secret, to keep a promise, where have you been keeping yourself, to keep out of the game, to keep one’s head, to keep an eye on, to keep one’s temper, to keep out of one’s way, to keep something in one’s head (to remember), to keep pace with, a kept woman, to keep open house, to keep quiet/silent/still