shore and sky and utter desolation. And you, who have so often by your talk and your counsel taken off the burden of my care and disquietude, you who are used to be my ally in the affairs of State, and the confidant of my private concerns, and the partner of all my talk and all my projects, where are you? I am so lonely that my only solace is the time I spend with my wife and my girl and my sweet little Cicero. For as for all these fine friendships of interest and fashion, they have their glitter before the world, but nothing solid to carry home with me. And so when my reception rooms are thronged each morning, and I go down to the Forum marshalled by troops of friends, out of all the crowd I find no one to whom I can utter a joke with freedom or breathe a sigh in confidence. Thus I wait for you and long for you; nay, more, now I summon you to my side; for there are many troubles and anxieties of which I think I could rid my bosom, if I might only pour them into your ear in the course of a single walk."
It is pleasant to know that Atticus was not dull to the affection so heartily lavished on him, and that no cloud was suffered to come between the friends. The answer of Atticus was all that Cicero could desire. "I am glad," Cicero writes in reply,[1] "that you understand the value which I set on you, and I am beyond measure rejoiced that in those matters in which our family has, as it seems to me, treated you ungently and inconsiderately, you have acted with such patience; and I esteem this as the sign of a
- ↑ Ad Att., i., 20, 1.
