It would turn that interlacing wreath of laurels and of poppies into the strongest bond in the world.
I would simply have nothing to do with it.
But there was no harm I asking Armour to dine with me; I sent the note off by messenger after breakfast and told the steward to put a magnum of Pommery to cool at seven precisely.

I had some idea, I suppose, of drinking with Armour to his eternal discomfiture.

Then I went to the office with a mind cleared of responsibility and comfortably pervaded with the glow of good intentions.
The moment I saw the young man, punctual and immediate and a little uncomfortable about the cuffs, I regretted not having asked one or two more fellows.

It might have spoiled the occasion, but it would have saved the situation.

That single glance of my accustomed eye--alas! that it was so well accustomed--revealed him anxious and screwed up, as nervous as a cat, but determined, revealed--how well I knew the signs!--that he had something confidential and important and highly personal to communicate, a matter in which I could, if I only would, be of the greatest possible assistance.