What must it be to live among those who are quick to recognise nobility of motive, to conspire with aspiration, to believe in the best and highest in each other?
It was to taste such a life as this, to feel the consoling power of mutual faith and the inspiration of a common devotion to the ideals that were dearest to us, that our thoughts turned so often and with such longing to Arden.

In such moments we opened with delight certain books which were full of the joy and beauty of the Forest life; books which brought back the dreams that were fading out and touched us afresh with the unsearchable charm and beauty of the Ideal.

Surely there could no better fortune befall us than to be able to call these great ministering spirits our friends.
But, strong as was our longing, we were not without misgivings when we first found ourselves in Arden.

In this commerce of ideas and hopes, what had we to give in exchange?
How could we claim that equality with those we longed to know which is the only basis of friendship?
We were unconsciously carrying into the Forest the limitations of our old life, and among all the glad surprises that awaited us, there was none so joyful as the discovery that our misgivings vanished as soon as we began to know our neighbours.

Neither of us will ever forget the perfect joy of those earliest meetings; a joy so great that we wondered if it could endure.