But Jack Parish evidently didn't listen,
for his eye had been anxiously roving around the room, and just at that
moment, they rested on Joel, and they lighted up so unmistakably that Joel
sprang forward, a light in his own.
"Did you want me, Jack?"
"Yes," said Jack, "I did." The words were not much, but they seemed to
satisfy Joel.
XXVI
MR. HAMILTON DYCE A TRUE FRIEND
And after every boy protested that he couldn't eat another bit, the butler
and the two maids packed up the trays and carried them down again.
"Now, Comfort committee," said Mrs. Sterling, "all draw up here."
So the circle of chairs and crickets was made around the sofa, and the real
business of the evening began. It was in the very commencement of things
Joel noticed that every one of the members seemed to take a fancy to Jack.
Curtis Park leaned over from his chair. "I say, Frick, change places with
me." Frick was next to the visitor, Joel, of course, being on his other
side.
"No, you don't," said Frick, not over politely.
"Oh, that's mean," began Curtis, then he remembered where he was, and sat
back in his chair, biting his pencil.
Frick straightened himself up with enjoyment
"You can take my pencil," he said to Jack magnanimously; "we all brought
'em, you know, she wanted us to."
Joel caught the last of this. "Oh, dear me!" he exclaimed, in remorse, "I
forgot mine; and, Jack, I was going to bring one for you.
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