I found the whole paragraph describing Timothy, in Chapter one, full of irony. He left the publishing business because he "scented out the stagnation which, indeed had not yet come, but which ultimately, as all agreed, was bound to set in". And by the act of investing at three per cent "had at once assumed an isolated position, no other Forsyte being content with less than four per cent for his money". I must as well quote the whole paragraph for the rest of it has an ironical tone to it too and I have a feeling it alludes to things the reader will read about later in the book.