Greatly to my surprise I found myself becoming interested in Finchsifter, and during the luncheon which followed our return to my Bungalow and the dinner that evening at his hotel, we laid what promised to be the foundation of a lasting friendship.
To be sure he was a man of many words, but the words of Finchsifter were well trained words, old family servants that knew their places and never presumed, or took liberties with the listener.
If a reply or comment were imperative—an adjective caught at random gave instant clue to what had gone before—even as a single toe joint restores to the naturalist the forgotten form of the Iohippus.
Finchsifter was a mental rest cure, his talk was soothing as a verbal brain massage. I conceived that one might form the Finchsifter habit, in time even become a slave to it as men become slaves to cocaine, Psychoanalysis, or Taxicabs.
But this was not to be.
As a would-be suicide has been turned from his purpose by the chill of the water into which he has plunged—so it was by Finchsifter himself that I was cured of the Finchsifter habit.
It was on the occasion of our second meeting, appointed at the suggestion of Finchsifter that we take our matutinal walk around the Lake in each others company.
He greeted me with a delighted smile, exclaiming as he took my hand in both of his very new saffron gloves.
“I have a great idea found—!—You are a poet? yes? Then you know all about this Free Verse which I read always about in the magazines? Perhaps you can yourself make it? Yes?” His face fairly shone with the inner flame of his project.
I found myself harkening against my will. What possible interest could Finchsifter have in verse of any kind—let alone free verse. “This will never do,” I reflected. “If he compels me to listen—then we shall cease to be friends—I came here to rest. I might as well take the first train back to New York!” Finchsifter was still talking. Eyeing me keenly as if mentally debating my trustworthiness—he continued: “If it is sure enough Free, then it don’t cost nothing.”