He is a much better companion than formerly,--for once he would talk obstinately through the walk, but now we can be silent and see things together. Fuller Mss. III. 165.
In another place she gives this striking glimpse of his personal appearance:
It was raining hard and quite cold — he had on his blue cloak, falling in large straight folds; in that he looks as if he had come to his immortality as a statue.
Fuller Mss. III. 183.
Elsewhere she describes him as reading to her passages of his poetry, and quotes some lines which I am unable to identify, while others appear in the appendix to the edition just published:--
Waldo and I have good meetings, though we stop at all our old places. But my expectations are moderate now; it is his beautiful presence that I prize, far more than our intercourse. He has been reading me his new poems and the others. At the end he asked me how I liked the ‘ little subjective twinkle all through.’ He has indeed set off the picture lively.
And,Lonely he sat, the men were strange,
The women all forbidden.And,Merge me in the brute universe
Or lift to some diviner dream.And,His loves were sharp, sharp pains.
Content with gods or fools to live.
In the resolves of fate?] I acquiesce.
Gentle Saadi, mind thy rhyme.
