784 A MODERN COMEDY
cabs and motor cars from immemorial time, or at least
from the days of George the Fourth. The winding river
shone discreetly, far down there ; and the trees of the
encompassing landscape, though the oaks were still
-oldened had just begun to have a brooding look ; in July
they would be heavy and blueish. Curiously, few houses
showed among the trees and fields ; very scanty evidence of
man, within twelve miles of London ! The spirit of an
older England seemed to have fended jerry-builders from a
prospect sacred to the ejaculations of four generations.
Of those five on the terrace Winifred best expressed that
guarding spirit, with her :
" Really, it's a very pretty view ! "
A view—a view ! And yet a view was not what it had
been when old Jolyon travelled the Alps with that knapsack
of brown leather and square shape, still in his grandson
Jon's possession; or Swithin above his greys, rolling his
neck with consequence towards the lady by his side, had
pointed with his whip down at the river and pouted:
" A pooty little view ! " Or James, crouched over his
long knees in some gondola, had examined the Grand
Canal at Venice with doubting eyes, and muttered : " They
never told me the water was this colour ! " Or Nicholas,
taking his constitutional at Matlock, had opined that the
gorge was the finest in England. No, a view was not
what it had been ! George Forsyte and Montague Dartie,
with their backs to it, quizzically contemplating the
Liberty ladies brought down to be fed, had started that
rot; and now the young folk didn't use the expression,
but just ejaculated: " Christ!" or words to that
effect.
But there was Anne, of course, like an American, with
clasped hands, and :
" Isn't it too lovely, Jon f It's sort of romantic ! "