In their Wisdom by C.P. Snow

If he had been invited to Swaffield's July party, Ryle would have had another occasion to wonder whether people were thoughtless, or just dancing as the English officers did the night before Waterloo, because there was nothing else to do. However, James Ryle wasn't invited: and, to come down to more crude facts, there was no dancing. Swaffield had planned that party with devoted care, and there was another entertainment, which, when his guests received their invitations, aroused in some expectation and, in a good many more, surprise. Certain sceptical spirits enquired: ‘What's all this in aid of?'

Swaffield wouldn't have minded that question. The party was in aid of Swaffield, or more exactly in aid of Swaffield the peacemaker. When the settlement had been quashed by Julian's master play, Swaffield was left in a position both ridiculous and irksome, having performed his Quixotic act, incurred all the penalties, and then been cut off from any conceivable satisfaction. That would have infuriated more harmonious men than Swaffield, in the event, so unlikely as to be impossible, of more harmonious men performing the Quixotic act.