Then there is
no need to demand or to question loyalty, because the tie has been
welded by many a simple deed, many a frank word. The ideal is a
perfect frankness and sincerity, which lays bare the soul as it is,
without any false shame or any fear of misunderstanding. A
friendship of this kind can be one of the purest, brightest, and
strongest things in the world. Yet how rare it is! What far oftener
happens is that two people, in a sensitive and emotional mood, are
brought together. They begin by comparing experiences, they search
their memories for beautiful and suggestive things, and each feels,
"This nature is the true complement of my own; what light it seems
to shed on my own problems; how subtle, how appreciative it is!"
Then the process of discovery begins. Instead of the fair distant
city, all spires and towers, which we discerned in the distance in
a sort of glory, we find that there are crooked lanes, muddy
crossings, dull market-places, tiresome houses. Odd misshapen
figures, fretful and wearied, plod through the streets or look out
at windows; here is a ruin, with doleful creatures moping in the
shade; we overturn a stone, and blind uncanny things writhe away
from the light.
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