[Boston—Saturday, 25 May 1872]
Saturday. Another soft warm rain. Went Coffee housing etc. Gardening in the P.M. Julian Hawthorne came from the Club home with J.T.F. It is five years since he left America and six since I have seen him. He has entered manhood, has married and has a child—Hildegarde. His wife is a Southern Woman—(New Orleans) whom he met in Germany. She is of German extraction. They do not like America and are about to live in Dresden. He said—“Why if you knew how good it was to live there you would not live here!” I said “then you will never return.” “O as a matter of principle I shall come back in five years”! Ah my friend you will have forsworn your country then and you will be a stranger in a strange land—too late! too late. Ye cannot enter here.
I could not say this--but unutterable things coursed through my brain at the careless words Ed ci, Frate l’andare in Su che porta? Purgatorio C. 4
