Was he to leave his little friend alone on
Christmas Eve? Certainly not! Should his place in the house of his
parents remain vacant for the first time on a Christmas Eve? H'm! This
was the position of affairs when he went to the Law Courts.
During the interval for lunch a colleague came up to him and asked him
as discreetly as possible:
"Are you going to spend Christmas Eve with your family?"
He flared up at once. Was his friend aware of his position? Or what
did he mean?
The other man saw that he had stepped on a corn, and added hastily,
without waiting for a reply:
"Because if you are not, you might spend it with us. You know,
perhaps, that I have a little friend, a dear little soul."
It sounded all right and he accepted the invitation on condition that
they should both be invited. Well, but of course, what else did he
think? And this settled the problem of friends and Christmas Eve.
They met at six o'clock at the friend's flat, and while the two "old
men" had a glass of punch, the women went into the kitchen.
All four helped to lay the table. The two "old men" knelt on the floor
and tried to lengthen the table by means of boards and wedges. The
women were on the best of terms at once, for they felt bound together
by that very obvious tie which bears the great name of "public opinion.
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