You forgot--I will not say the formal courtesy of thanks, for formal courtesies will strain a close friendship--but simply the grace of sweet companionship, the charm of pleasant conversation, and all those gentle humanities that make life lovely, and are an accompaniment to life as music might be, keeping things in tune and filling with melody the harsh or silent places.

And though it may seem strange to you that one in the terrible position in which I am situated, should find a difference between one disgrace and another, still I frankly admit that the folly of throwing away all this money on you, and letting you squander my fortune to your own hurt as well as to mine, gives to me and in my eyes a note of common profligacy to my bankruptcy that makes me doubly ashamed of it.

I was made for other things.
But most of all I blame myself for the entire ethical degradation I allowed you to bring on me.

The basis of character is will power, and my will power became absolutely subject[45] to yours.

It sounds a grotesque thing to say, but it is none the less true.