Your scruples about living here as you lived during
your illness--simply as my guest--I understand, but do not approve.
They show that you are not quite so free from the bondage of custom
as I should like every friend of mine to be. The tie of friendship
is, in my judgment, the strongest of all ties, stronger than that of
blood, because it springs from the natural kinship of soul to soul,
and there is no reason in the world why I should not offer you a home
as a friend, or why, if the circumstances of our lives were reversed,
you should not offer me one. But in this case it is the fact that the
service I am asking you to render me is greater than any service I
can render you."
'I was so deeply touched by his words and by his way of speaking
them, that my lips trembled, and I could make no reply.
'"It is a shame," he said, "for me to talk about business so soon
after your recovery. Let us leave the matter for the moment, and come
to me in the studio during the morning, and let me show you the
pictures I am painting, and some of my choice things.
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