“Yes, I saw Gerald once at his club and had a short talk with him.  He was apparently well.  You should not feel so anxious about him.  He is very young, yet, but he comes from good stock.  Sooner or later he is bound to find himself; you must not doubt that.  Also he knows that he can always come to me when he wishes.

“No, I have not ridden in the Park since you and Nina and the children went to Silverside.  I walked there Sunday, and it was most beautiful, especially through the Ramble.  In his later years my father was fond of walking there with me.  That is one reason I go there; he seems to be very near me when I stand under the familiar trees or move along the flowering walks he loved so well.  I wish you had known him.  It is curious how often this wish recurs to me; and so persistent was it in the Park that lovely Sunday that, at moments, it seemed as though we three were walking there together—­he and you and I—­quite happy in the silence of companionship which seemed not of yesterday but of years.

“It is rather a comforting faculty I have—­this unconscious companionship with the absent.  Once I told you that you had been with me while you supposed yourself to be at Silverside.  Do you remember?  Now, here in the city, I walk with you constantly; and we often keep pace together through crowded streets and avenues; and in the quiet hours you are very often, seated not far from where I sit. . . .  If I turned around now—­so real has been your presence in my room to-night—­that it seems as though I could not help but surprise you here—­just yonder on the edges of the lamp glow—­

     “But I know you had rather remain at Silverside, so I won’t turn
     around and surprise you here in Manhattan town.

“And now your next question:  Yes, Boots is well, and I will give him Drina’s love, and I will try my best to bring him to Silverside when I come.  Boots is still crazed with admiration for his house.  He has two cats, a housekeeper, and a jungle of shrubs and vines in the back yard, which he plays the hose on; and he has also acquired some really beautiful old rugs—­a Herez which has all the tints of a living sapphire, and a charming antique Shiraz, rose, gold, and that rare old Persian blue.  To mention symbols for a moment, apropos of our archaeological readings together, Boots has an antique Asia Minor rug in which I discovered not only the Swastika, but also a fire-altar, a Rhodian lily border, and a Mongolian motif which appears to resemble the cloud-band.  It was quite an Anatshair jumble in fact, very characteristic.  We must capture Nina some day and she and you and I will pay a visit to Boots’s rugs and study these old dyes and mystic symbols of the East.  Shall we?

“And now your last question.  And I answer:  Yes, I do miss you—­so badly that I often take refuge in summoning you in spirit.  The other day I had occasion