We calculate the force between hard spheres of several diameters at infinite dilution in a Lennard-Jones fluid on the basis of the Percus-Yevick solution of the Ornstein-Zernike equation. In particular, we study the region of the phase diagram near the critical point of the solvent. We find, in contrast to recent results for sticky spheres, that the solvent mediated force is attractive and monotonically increasing in the critical region. At high solvent density the force, while still attractive, oscillates as function of separation.