Your friend knows just what work you are
doing, just what book you are reading. You have a great deal of time for
talking, and by degrees each knows almost everything about the life of
the other, for the lives are short, and at this period neither profound
nor intricate.
Now, if you are really fitted to be friends to one another, this
intimacy may be a very good beginning; you know each other thoroughly,
and the mutual affection, sympathy, and help I spoke of in a former
paper are much more possible when there is such perfect acquaintance. At
the same time there are features in such a friendship which tell very
much against the idea of its long continuance.
To begin with, such frequent meetings must often exhaust the materials
for conversation. Girls do not usually "take in" to such large extent
that they can be continually "giving out" with interest to their
hearers. Do you not sometimes find that you have nothing more to say to
your friend since you saw her yesterday? You have had one short, stupid
letter from a school companion, you have tried your hand at making
orange fritters and failed, and cook says you must try something easier;
you have read a little more of the book you discursed yesterday, and
done a little more of the painting, and when these subjects are disposed
of conversation flags.
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