Then he mailed Ellen Culpepper's letter, and was a lover living in an ethereal world as he walked home babbling her name in whispers to the stars.
Often when this mood was not upon him, and a letter was due to Ellen, he went downstairs in the house where he lived and played the piano to bring her near to him.

That never failed to change his face as by a miracle.

"When John comes upstairs," wrote Bob Hendricks to Molly, "he is as one in a dream, with the mists of the music in his eyes.

I never bother him then.

He will not speak to me, nor do a thing in the world, until that letter is written, sealed, and stamped.