"Very haughty!" he said, "the wild Buccaneer." And this mot, the 'Buccaneer,' was bandied from mouth to mouth, till it became the favourite mode of alluding to Bosinney.
Her aunts reproached June afterwards about the hat.
"We don't think you ought to let him, dear!" they had said.
June had answered in her imperious brisk way, like the little embodiment of will she was: "Oh! what does it matter?
Phil never knows what he's got on!" No one had credited an answer so outrageous.

A man not to know what he had on?
No, no! What indeed was this young man, who, in becoming engaged to June, old Jolyon's acknowledged heiress, had done so well for himself?
He was an architect, not in itself a sufficient reason for wearing such a hat.

None of the Forsytes happened to be architects, but one of them knew two architects who would never have worn such a hat upon a call of ceremony in the London season.
Dangerous--ah, dangerous! June, of course, had not seen this, but, though not yet nineteen, she was notorious.

Had she not said to Mrs.
Soames--who was always so beautifully dressed--that feathers were vulgar?
Mrs.Soames had actually given up wearing feathers, so dreadfully downright was dear June! These misgivings, this disapproval, and perfectly genuine distrust, did not prevent the Forsytes from gathering to old Jolyon's invitation.

An 'At Home' at Stanhope Gate was a great rarity; none had been held for twelve years, not indeed, since old Mrs.Jolyon had died.
Never had there been so full an assembly, for, mysteriously united in spite of all their differences, they had taken arms against a common peril.