A family wedding

Synopsis

Fleur marries Michael Mont. Old Mont and Old Forsyte (by now, Soames has come to be the head of the family) meet and find business interests in common.

It is 1922. Michael Mont works for a publisher. One of the publisher's employees is being sacked for stealing copies of a best-selling book of poetry. (They had such things in the Twenties, apparently.) The poet is Wilfrid, Michael's best man. The poet is busy trying to seduce Michael's wife, the bored socialite Fleur. She finds it all amusing.

Soames is on the board of a firm that he finds a little dodgy. He demands more detail about the firm's accounting. (Apparently in the Twenties they also had company board members who took their jobs seriously. Or maybe it was just this one Forsyte.) He's called away after the meeting to do some emergency lawyering for Cousin George. The witty George is dying. He gets Soames to write him a codicil leaving a lot of his money to a woman, to whom George was not married. Thus he plays a last joke on Soames: taking advantage of Soames's trustworthiness to make sure somewhat not a Forsyte gets some Forsyte money.

Fleur continues to flirt with the poet. The sacked loading-dock man, Bickett, sells balloons to make money so he and his sick wife can emigrate to Australia. He sells one to Soames, who in a surprising moment buys two and tells Bickett to keep the considerable change.

Soames takes his daughter to be wed.	Old Mont and Old Forsyte discuss business.	George wonders if the filly will stay the course.
June tries to tell Fleur that nobody can ruin a whole life. Certainly not Irene.	Bickett gets the sack for stealing, allegedly to support his sick wife.	The busy rich housewife, on the telephone.	Wilfrid, Michael's best man, has designs on his friend's new wife.
Family tea: Fleur pours for the fathers-in-law.	Old Forsyte and Old Mont discuss the lack of grandchildren thus far. A pin to choose between them.	Wilfred persists in angry admiration.	Bickett tells his wife he's going to sell balloons.
PPRS board meeting. Soames doesn't like the accounting practices, and makes waves by saying so.	Soames keeps looking at a painting George has, of a white monkey.	"You're a dry file, Soames." But he can be trusted.	Goodbye, George.
Fleur plays with fire, probably because she's bored.	Soames buys a balloon from Bickett, who thinks of him as "that Alderman".

Novels

The last chapters of To let and the beginning of The white monkey:

10: Fleur's wedding
11: The last of the old Forsytes

The three books of A modern comedy are not yet in the public domain, so neither Project Gutenburg nor I have the texts online.

Commentary

I believe this would be the point at which the viewer's interest might begin to flag. The conflict between Soames and Irene is the heart of the story, and where's Irene? The viewer must now transfer attention to Fleur, the spoiled bored housewife.