About the Author

John Galsworthy [1867-1933], the son of a

wealthy London solicitor and property
owner.

He was born at Kingston, near London. He

studied law at Oxford, and was called to the
Bar at 1890.

He no need to earn a living and he never

practiced law. However, an animal less life
did not appeal to him and he started
travelling and writing.
He published nineteen novels between 1900
and 1933, besides his short stories and
twenty length plays.

His fame rested on the chronicles of the

Frosyte family, which were collected as The
Frosyte Sage (1922), A Modern Comedy
(1929) and End of the Chapter (1935).

His novels and plays show his

compassionate sympathy for the poor and
downtrodden. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1932.
 Summary Of the Story
Flader, aged 23, works as clerk in a
solicitor’s office. He is sensitive and highly
emotional young man, and deeply disturbed,
when he sees Ruth Honeywill, a woman
with two children, whom he has fallen in
love with, being tortured and maltreated by
her husband.

He forges the cheque in order to help her, as

they both plan to escape and start a new life
together.
The forgery is discovered. The change he
has made is: adding a ‘ty’ to nine, so as to
make it ninety pounds, instead of the actual
nine pounds written on the cheque.

James How, his boss immediately decides to

call the police, though both his son Walter
How, and his managing clerk, Robert
Cokeson, are against this drastic measure.
Falder is arrested and imprisoned. At the
trial, the jury rules against him. When he is
released and tries to find a job, it is difficult
and the police are again on his track.

Galsworthy shows the very machinery

Falder worked with in the solicitor’s office
crushes him ruthlessly. In the last scene
there is “thud’’ and Falder has committed
suicide before the police can take him away.