William Dean Howells 



and darkled in his talk as they must 

 have done in life. 



But I am leaving him standing 

 where I next met him, in Boston 

 Common, namely, two years after our 

 parting in London. It was pending 

 that presidential election of 1884, 

 when friends hardly knew where to 

 find each other, or knew whether they 

 were quite friends when they did so. 

 But we instantly and instinctively 

 came together on Blaine, for whom 

 we were going to vote, in a wide 

 literary and social isolation, because 

 " in our bones " we felt it the right 

 thing, rather than from any reasons 

 better than those of our friends who 

 were going to vote against him. King 

 had a personal kindness to remember 

 of him, such as his leaving a sick bed 

 to come to the Senate and help 

 through a bill in which King was in- 

 terested, and " He stands by his 

 friends," he said with that fine close 

 149 



