Carin, that is what I want more than anything, I believe, to know what other people are really thinking. I can’t tell you how it interests, nay, absorbs me!
But in the sort of life that I lead now, no one speaks out and says what he thinks. We are endlessly polite. We all say the same thing. We all do the same things. At times, it is true, I see someone looking at me with the eyes of true friendship, but we are parted by the people about us, and we do not really become acquainted. So I am very lonely, in spite of all that is interesting and beautiful about me, and I wish you and I and Annie Laurie were sitting together up in your little studio-room, with the world far from us, and just we three opening our hearts to each other.
I have been out to-day selecting some presents for friends back at home, and I enjoyed that very much. Do you know, I couldn’t resist getting something for those two lonely women, the Wixons, up on Hebron mountain—the ones whose soup I ate uninvited. If ever I get back to Lee, I shall ride up and get acquainted with those women. Isn’t it curious how people draw you and draw you, even people you have never met, but know only by report? As for those you do know, they can draw you half around the world. Yes, out of the millions and millions of human beings on this old globe, there will be but two or three, perhaps, who are verily your own, and those you must have.
A young man called on uncle yesterday, bearing a letter of introduction. He lives, I believe, in Baltimore, and his name is Gerald Hargreaves. His father was a friend of uncle’s, and some mutual friend who knew that uncle was over here, gave him the letter. I don’t think he was very keen about presenting it, but we are glad he did, for he seems a delightful young man. Uncle David took to him at once, and so, for the matter of that, did Aunt Lorena and I. He is an athletic young person with a general blond appearance and a nice voice. He seems modest, too, and genial. He finished college last year and has been traveling around Europe, but he means to go back home soon and settle down. He is to follow the custom of his family and go into the railroad business. Naturally, we talked about railroads a good deal, and the methods of home and foreign travel. He turned to me and said: