"Well, old boy, you haven't got any sweeter in the den this half. How
that stuff in the bottle stinks! Never mind; I ain't going to stop; but
you come up after prayers to our study. You know young Arthur. We've got
Gray's study. We'll have a good supper and talk about bird-nesting."
Martin was evidently highly pleased at the invitation, and promised to
be up without fail.
As soon as prayers were over, and the sixth and fifth form boys had
withdrawn to the aristocratic seclusion of their own room, and the rest,
or democracy, had sat down to their supper in the hall, Tom and Arthur,
having secured their allowances of bread and cheese, started on their
feet to catch the eye of the prepostor of the week, who remained in
charge during supper, walking up and down the hall. He happened to be an
easy-going fellow, so they got a pleasant nod to their "Please may I go
out?" and away they scrambled to prepare for Martin a sumptuous banquet.
This Tom had insisted on, for he was in great delight on the occasion,
the reason of which delight must be expounded. The fact was that this
was the first attempt at a friendship of his own which Arthur had made,
and Tom hailed it as a grand step. The ease with which he himself became
hail-fellow-well-met with anybody, and blundered into and out of twenty
friendships a half-year, made him sometimes sorry and sometimes angry at
Arthur's reserve and loneliness.
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