Points of Friction
He valued at their worth a good play, a good book, a good talk, and a good dinner. He lived in days when occasional drunkenness failed to stagger humanity, and when roast pig was within the income of an East India clerk. He had a gift, subtle rather than robust, for enjoyment, and a sincere accessibility to pain. His words were unsparing, his actions kind. He binds us to him by his petulance as well as by his patience, by his entirely human revolt from dull people and tiresome happenings. He was not one of those who
"lightly lose
Their all, yet feel no aching void.
Should aught annoy them, they refuse
To be annoyed."
On the contrary, the whimsical expression of his repeated annoyance is balm to our fretted souls.
For the friend whom we love is the friend who gets wet when he is rained on, who is candid enough to admit fail-
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