two in answer to the one received from
you since getting back to the old place. I hear you have been making
comments about me at the theatre, that some actor was more democratic in
his manners than I am, which I do not understand. You know my theory of
life because I explained it to you on our first drive together, when I
told you I would not talk to everybody about things I feel like the way
I spoke to you of my theory of life. I believe those who are able should
have a true theory of life, and I developed my theory of life long, long
ago.

Well, here I sit smoking my faithful briar pipe, indulging in the
fragrance of my tobacco as I look out on the campus from my many-paned
window, and things are different with me from the way they were way back
in Freshman year. I can see now how boyish in many ways I was then. I
believe what has changed me as much as anything was my visit home at the
time I met you. So I sit here with my faithful briar and dream the old
dreams over as it were, dreaming of the waltzes we waltzed together and
of that last night before we parted, and you told me the good news you
were going to live there, and I would find my friend waiting for me,
when I get home next summer.

I will be glad my friend will be waiting for me. I am not capable of
friendship except for the very few, and, looking back over my life,
I remember there were times when I doubted if I could feel a great
friendship for anybody--especially girls. I do not take a great interest
in many people, as you know, for I find most of them shallow. Here in
the old place I do not believe in being hail-fellow-well-met with every
Tom, Dick, and Harry just because he happens to be a classmate, any more
than I do at home, where I have always been careful who I was seen with,
largely on account of the family, but also because my disposition ever
since my boyhood has been to encourage real intimacy from but the few.

What are you reading now? I have finished both "Henry Esmond" and "The
Virginians." I like Thackeray because he is not trashy, and because he
writes principally of nice people. My theory of literature is an author
who does not indulge in trashiness--writes about people you could
introduce into your own home. I agree with my Uncle Sydney, as I once
heard him say he did not care to read a book or go to a play about
people he would not care to meet at his own dinner table. I believe we
should live by certain standards and ideals, as you