Alec shifted uncomfortably on the settee as his friends pawed at each other: there was a desperate hunger in the air that made him distinctly uneasy.
Alec abruptly stood up, staggering over to the punch bowl. By now, Charlie was very nearly straddling Allaster and Alec hated the strange stab of jealousy the sight provoked. Was it because of the evident pleasure Allaster felt or the sly way Charlie grinned at his friend?
Unbidden, a line from Whitman's Calamus poems came to mind: underneath Christ the divine I see,/The dear love of man for his comrade, the attraction of friend to friend.
Friend to friend, Alec repeated to himself, chugging another cup of punch. This was just the frenetic behavior of friends, the bonding of men, the games of drunken fools.