It
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years since I had visited my hometown and I decided
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my stay. I went to see my old friend, Tom Clark, who was a member of the Local Council. At that time Tom was busy
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for a famous writer to give a talk
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modern literature at the town library. As the subject
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me a great deal, I gladly
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Tom"s invitation to go with him.
Tom was to introduce the guest speaker and that evening we went to the library
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him.
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he hadn"t yet arrived, I left Tom and went into the reading room
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a large audience had already gathered. I was
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that I didn"t know a single person there. Just before the talk was due
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, I saw Tom
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to me from the doorway. I went to him immediately, as he
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very worried. He explained that he had just received a call from the writer"s secretary. Our guest speaker
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the train and
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come! While we were thinking about the
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, Tom suddenly asked me if I would mind
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as a speaker. I hardly had the time
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about the matter
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I found I was being led into the reading room to address the
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audience.