More than a year ago a friend asked me what sort of man Synge was. I answered, “a perfect companion.” The other day I saw that another friend, who knew him better than I, had described him as “the best companion.” After that first day, when I called upon him at his room, we met frequently. We walked long miles together, generally from Bloomsbury to the river, along the river to Vauxhall, and back by Westminster to Soho. We sometimes dined together at a little French restaurant, called the Restaurant des Gourmets. The house still stands; but it has now grown to five times the size. The place where Synge and I used to sit has now been improved away. We spent happy hours there, talking, rolling cigarettes, and watching the life. “Those were great days,” he used to say. He was the best companion for that kind of day.
Our talk was always about life. When we talked about writers (modern French and ancient English writers) it was not about their writings that we talked, but about the something kindling in them, which never got expressed. His
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