I am sorry that our friendship, or whatever name one may give to the obsessive relationship which has bound us together for so many years, should end in this way. This is not the place to utter its elegy.

Partly, I still felt something of the sheer unholy excitement which I had experienced initially at the thought of a friend (especially this one) in trouble.

Well, you won't abandon me, will you.""Don't be silly, Ludens, you are buckled to my heart.

Most friendships are a sort of frozen and undeveloping semi-hostility.