Volume I Part 40 (1/2)

TO ----

NEW YORK, Noveive you soain? I was very sorry not to have been able to see you: I should have wished to be able to give you a few bits of advice about precautions to take during the tropical part of your trip But I have faith in your superb constitution and youth,--and trust this will reach eyes undilow of all the strange suns that will have shone upon you

So that is my dream that I wrote you about: it was you, not I, that were to run away But I did not help you to do your packing, as I iined

I wonder if you went away in black silk, or black cashmere: I drea notice about you in the _Tribune_, there suddenly caue sense of unhappiness I had drea,--an absurd sense of absolute loneliness

For seldom as I saw you, I must tell you that I looked forward to such visits as to soreat iron-whirling world and everything in it but yourself You netic sunshi+ne for me; and you know I liked to bask in it so much that I used to be quite selfish about it I feel now as though, each night I sat up so late in your little parlour, I was taking froth,--acted, in short, the part of a psychical cannibal! And I a able to feel more remorseful than I do; it was so nice to be there that I can't be properly sorry, as I should

I andfor you, praying for you to win your race,--so that every one may admire you still more, and your name be flashed round the world quicker than the sunshi+ne, and your portrait--in spite of you--appear in sorave portraits properly I thought I ht be able to coax one from you; but as you never are the same person two minutes in succession, I am partly consoled: it could only be one small phase of you,--Proteus, Circe, Undine, Djineeyeh!

--And you found the loose bar at last, and shook it out, and flew! I ain,--that was so irksoe to you hereafter:--it will have grown socircuit of yours about it Perhaps when human society shall have become infinitely more fluid and electric than at present,--which it is sure to do with the expansion and increasing complexity of intercommunication by steam and wire,--this little half-dead planet will seeht of a larger knowledge, constrained al, like hi Even now there is no e countries,--because there are no strange countries: everything is being interbound and interspersed with steel rails and lightning wires;--there are no more mysteries,--except what are called hearts, those points at which individualities rarely touch each other, only to feel as sudden a thrill of surprise as at host, and then to wonder in vain, for the rest of life, what lies out of soul-sight

--Did you often wish to stop so about you, and see the faces of Gods and dancing-girls? Or were you petted like the _Lady of the Aroostook_ by officers and crew,--and British dignitaries eager to win one Circe-s ho? I have been so afraid of never seeing you again, that I have been hating splendid iners in dreams,--which would have been quite wickedly selfish if I had been awake!

With every true good wish and sincere affection,

Your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN

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