I am calm, I am perfectly unexcited, and I tell you, old son, I believe--pick among the highest--our destinies are about the most brilliant of any couple in Great Britain.' His absence relieved me in spite of my renewed pleasure in his talk; I may call it a thirsty craving to have him inflating me, puffing the deep unillumined treasure-pits of my nature with laborious hints, as mines are filled with air to keep the miners going.

While he talked he made these inmost recesses habitable.

But the pain lay in my having now and then to utter replies.

The task of speaking was hateful.

I found a sweetness in brooding unrealizingly over hopes and dreams and possibilities, and I let him go gladly that I might enjoy a week of silence, just taking impressions as they came, like the sands in the ebb-tide.