Was this what Peter had invited him to the club for?
Now it was all clear.

And then again he had not said a word about his being in the Street, or connected with it in any way.

Was there ever such a good Peter?
"Oh, yes, sir!--and I hope she is very well." The engineer said she was extremely well, never better in her life, and that he was delighted to meet a son of his old friend--then, turning to the others, immediately forgot Jack's existence, and for the time being his daughter, in the discussion still going on around him.
The young fellow settled himself in his seat and looked about him--at the smoke-stained ceiling, the old portraits and quaint fittings and furniture--more particularly at the men.

He would have liked to talk to Ruth's father a little longer, but he felt dazed and ill at ease--out of his element, somehow--although he remembered the same kind of people at his father's house, except that they wore different clothes.
But Peter did not leave him long in meditation.

There were other surprises for him upstairs, in the small dining-room opening out of the library, where a long table was spread with eatables and drinkables--salads, baby sausages, escaloped oysters, devilled crabs and other dishes dear to old and new members.