He had been standing there nearly two hours, shifting from foot to unaccustomed foot, and had sold four big and five small–sixpenny worth of profit–when Soames, who had changed his route to spite those fellows who couldn’t get past William Gouldyng Ingerer, came by on his way to the P.P.R.S. board. Startled by a timid murmur: “Balloon, sir, best quality,” he looked round from that contemplation of St. Paul’s which had been his lifelong habit, and stopped in sheer surprise.
“Balloon!” he said. “What should I want with a balloon?”
Bicket smiled. Between those green and blue and orange globes and Soames’ grey self-containment there was incongruity which even he could appreciate.
“Children like ’em–no weight, sir, waistcoat pocket.”
“I daresay,” said Soames, “but I’ve no children.”
“Grandchildren, sir.”
“Nor any grandchildren.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Soames gave him one of those rapid glances with which he was accustomed to gauge the character of the impecunious. ‘A poor, harmless little rat!’ he thought “Here, give me two–how much?”
“A shilling, sir, and much obliged.”
“You can keep the change,” said Soames hurriedly, and passed on, astonished. Why on earth he had bought the things, and for more than double their price, he could not conceive. He did not recollect such a thing having happened to him before. Extremely peculiar! And suddenly he realised why. The fellow had been humble, mild–to be encouraged, in these days of Communistic bravura. After all, the little chap was–was on the side of Capital, had invested in those balloons! Trade! And, raising his eyes towards St. Paul’s again, he stuffed the nasty-feeling things down into his overcoat pocket. Somebody would be taking them out, and wondering what was the matter with him! Well, he had other things to think of!…
Bicket, however, stared after him, elated. Two hundred and fifty odd per cent. profit on those two–that was something like. The feeling, that not enough women were passing him here, became less poignant–after all, women knew the value of money, no extra shillings out of them! If only some more of these shiny-hatted old millionaires would come along!
At six o’clock, with a profit of three and eightpence, to which Soames had contributed just half, he began to add the sighs of deflating balloons to his own; untying them with passionate care he watched his coloured hopes one by one collapse, and stored them in the drawer of his tray. Taking it under his arm, he moved his tired legs in the direction of the Bridge. In a full day he might make four to five shillings–Well, it would just keep them alive, and something might turn up! He was his own master, anyway, accountable neither to employer nor to union. That knowledge gave him a curious lightness inside, together with the fact that he had eaten nothing since breakfast.
‘Wonder if he was an alderman,’ he thought; ‘they say those aldermen live on turtle soup.’ Nearing home, he considered nervously what to do with the tray? How prevent Victorine from knowing that he had joined the ranks of Capital, and spent his day in the gutter? Ill luck! She was at the window! He must put a good face on it. And he went in whistling.
“What’s that, Tony?” she said, pointing to the tray.
“Ah! ha! Great stunt–this! Look ’ere!”
Taking a balloon out from the tray, he blew. He blew with a desperation he had not yet put into the process. They said the things would swell to five feet in circumference. He felt somehow that if he could get it to attain those proportions, it would soften everything. Under his breath the thing blotted out Victorine, and the room, till there was just the globe of coloured air. Nipping its neck between thumb and finger, he held it up, and said:
“There you are; not bad value for sixpence, old girl!” and he peered round it. Lord, she was crying! He let the ‘blymed’ thing go; it floated down, the air slowly evaporating till a little crinkled wreck rested on the dingy carpet. Clasping her heaving shoulders, he said desperately:
“Cheerio, my dear, don’t quarrel with bread and butter. I shall get a job, this is just to tide us over. I’d do a lot worse than that for you. Come on, and get my tea, I’m hungry, blowin’ up those things.”
She stopped crying, looked up, said nothing–mysterious with those big eyes! You’d say she had thoughts! But what they were Bicket could not tell. Under the stimulus of tea, he achieved a certain bravado about his new profession. To be your own master! Go out when you liked, come home when you liked–lie in bed with Vic if he jolly well pleased. A lot in that! And there rose in Bicket something truly national, something free and happy-go-lucky, resenting regular work, enjoying a spurt, and a laze-off, craving independence–something that accounted for the national life, the crowds of little shops, of middlemen, casual workers, tramps, owning their own souls in their own good time, and damning the consequences–something inherent in the land, the race, before the Saxons and their conscience and their industry came in-something that believed in swelling and collapsing coloured air, demanded pickles and high flavours without nourishment–yes, all that something exulted above Bicket’s kipper and his tea, good and strong. He would rather sell balloons than be a packer any day, and don’t let Vic forget it! And when she was able to take a job, they would get on fine, and not be long before they’d saved enough to get out of it to where those blue butterflies came from. And he spoke of Soames. A few more aldermen without children–say two a day, fifteen bob a week outside legitimate trade. Why, in under a year they’d have the money! And once away, Vic would blow out like one of those balloons; she’d be twice the size, and a colour in her cheeks to lay over that orange and magenta. Bicket became full of air. And the girl, his wife, watched with her large eyes and spoke little; but she did not cry again, or, indeed, throw any water, warm or cold, on him who sold balloons.
Chapter XII.
FIGURES AND FACTS
With the exception of old Fontenoy–in absence as in presence ornamental–the Board was again full; Soames, conscious of special ingratiation in the manner of ‘that chap’ Elderson, prepared himself for the worst. The figures were before them; a somewhat colourless show, appearing to disclose a state of things which would pass muster, if within the next six months there were no further violent disturbances of currency exchange. The proportion of foreign business to home business was duly expressed in terms of two to seven; German business, which constituted the bulk of the foreign, had been lumped–Soames noted–in the middle section, of countries only half bankrupt, and taken at what might be called a conservative estimate.
During the silence which reigned while each member of the Board digested the figures, Soames perceived more clearly than ever the quandary he was in. Certainly, these figures would hardly justify the foregoing of the dividend earned on the past year’s business. But suppose there were another Continental crash and they became liable on the great bulk of their foreign business, it might swamp all profits on home business next year, and more besides. And then his uneasiness about Elderson himself–founded he could not tell on what, intuitive, perhaps silly.
“Well, Mr. Forsyte,” the chairman was speaking; “there are the figures. Are you satisfied?”
Soames looked up; he had taken a resolution.
“I will agree to this year’s dividend on condition that we drop this foreign business in future, lock, stock and barrel.” The manager’s eyes hard and bright, met his, then turned towards the chairman.
“That appears to savour of the panicky,” he said; “the foreign business is responsible for a good third of our profit this year.”
The chairman seemed to garner the expressions of his fellow-directors, before he said:
“There is nothing in the foreign situation at the moment, Mr. Forsyte, which gives particular cause for alarm. I admit that we should watch it closely–”
“You can’t,” interjected Soames. “Here we are four years from the Armistice, and we know no more where we stand than we did then. If I’d realised our commitment to this policy, I should never have come on the Board. We must drop it.”
“Rather an extreme view. And hardly a matter we can decide in a moment.”
The murmur of assent, the expression, faintly ironical, of ‘that chap’s’ lips, jolted the tenacity in Soames.
“Very well! Unless you’re prepared to tell the shareholders in the report that we are dropping foreign business, you drop me. I must be free to raise the question myself at the general meeting.” He did not miss the shift and blink in the manager’s eyes. That shot had gone home!
The Chairman said:
“You put a pistol to our heads.”
“I am responsible to the shareholders,” said Soames, “and I shall do my duty by them.”
“So we all are, Mr. Forsyte; and I hope we shall all do our duty.”
“Why not confine the foreign business to the small countries–their currency is safe enough?”
‘Old Mont,’ and his precious ‘ring!’
“No,” said Soames, “we must go back to safety.”
“Splendid isolation, Forsyte?”
“Meddling was all very well in the war, but in peace–politics or business–this half-and-half interference is no good. We can’t control the foreign situation.”
He looked around him, and was instantly conscious that with those words he had struck a chord. ‘I’m going through with this!’ he thought.
“I should be glad, Mr. Chairman”–the manager was speaking–“if I might say a word. The policy was of my initiation, and I think I may claim that it has been of substantial benefit to the Society so far. When, however, a member of the Board takes so strong a view against its continuance, I certainly don’t press the Board to continue it. The times ARE uncertain, and a risk, of course, is involved, however conservative our estimates.”
‘Now why?’ thought Soames: ‘What’s he ratting for?’
“That’s very handsome of you, Elderson; Mr. Chairman, I think we may say that is very handsome of our manager.”
Old Dosey Cosey! Handsome! The old woman!
The Chairman’s rather harsh voice broke a silence.
“This is a very serious point of policy. I should have been glad to have Lord Fontenoy present.”
“If I am to endorse the report,” said Soames shortly, “it must be decided today. I have made up my mind. But please yourselves.”
He threw in those last three words from a sort of fellow feeling–it was unpleasant to be dragooned! A moment’s silence, and then discussion assumed that random volubility which softens a decision already forced on one. A quarter of an hour thus passed before the Chairman said:
“We are agreed then, gentlemen, that the report shall contain the announcement that, in view of Continental uncertainty, we are abandoning foreign risks for the present.”
Soames had won. Relieved and puzzled, he walked away alone.
He had shown character; their respect for him had gone up, he could see; their liking for him down, if they’d ever had any–he didn’t know! But why had Elderson veered round? He recalled the shift and blink of the fellow’s steely eyes at the idea of the question being raised at the general meeting.
That had done it! But why? Were the figures faked? Surely not! That would be too difficult, in the face of the accountants. If Soames had faith, it was in chartered accountants. Sandis and Jevon were tip-top people. It couldn’t be that! He glanced up from the pavement. The dome of St. Paul’s was dim already in evening sky–nothing to be had out of it!
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