"Then why did you ever come? We didn't ask you."
The remark was so singularly at variance with all she had led him to
expect from her, that Strumolowski stretched out his hand and took a
cigarette.
"England never wants an idealist," he said.
But in June something primitively English was thoroughly upset; old
Jolyon's sense of justice had risen, as it were, from bed. "You come and
sponge on us," she said, "and then abuse us. If you think that's playing
the game, I don't."
She now discovered that which others had discovered before her--the
thickness of hide beneath which the sensibility of genius is sometimes
veiled. Strumolowski's young and ingenuous face became the incarnation
of a sneer.
"Sponge, one does not sponge, one takes what is owing--a tenth part of
what is owing. You will repent to say that, Miss Forsyte."
"Oh, no," said June, "I shan't."
"Ah! We know very well, we artists--you take us to get what you can
out of us. I want nothing from you"--and he blew out a cloud of June's
smoke.
Decision rose in an icy puff from the turmoil of insulted shame within
her. "Very well, then, you can take your things away."
And, almost in the same moment, she thought: 'Poor boy! He's only got
a garret, and probably not a taxi fare. In front of these people, too;
it's positively disgusting!'
Young Strumolowski shook his head violently; his hair, thick, smooth,
close as a golden plate, did not fall off.
"I can live on nothing," he said shrilly; "I have often had to for the
sake of my Art. It is you bourgeois who force us to spend money."
The words hit June like a pebble, in the ribs. After all she had done
for Art, all her identification with its troubles and lame ducks. She
was struggling for adequate words when the door was opened, and her
Austrian murmured:
"A young lady, gnadiges Fraulein."
"Where?"
"In the little meal-room."
With a glance at Boris Strumolowski, at Hannah Hobdey, at Jimmy
Portugal, June said nothing, and went out, devoid of equanimity.
Entering the "little meal-room," she perceived the young lady to be
Fleur--looking very pretty, if pale. At this disenchanted moment a
little lame duck of her own breed was welcome to June, so homoeopathic
by instinct.
The girl must have come, of course, because of Jon; or, if not, at least
to get something out of her. And June felt just then that to assist
somebody was the only bearable thing.
"So you've remembered to come," she said.
"Yes. What a jolly little duck of a house! But please don't let me
bother you, if you've got people."