On the night he received the letter, John went round to Lindon's flat at Battersea, which overlooked the river and Chelsea on the opposite bank. It was a grey Spring evening, and the great flood ran linked with lights reflected in the stream; the beauty of melancholy was on the face of things. John stood staring out of the window. Lindon was playing by candle light; now grasping fame as a pianist, he was attractive and forceful as ever. John watched his splendid head between the candles on either side, as it moved with the rhythm of a Brahms waltz. Suddenly the player stopped. "A penny, Scissors," he said, seeing the deep gaze. John laughed and looked out of the window again. "They're not worth it--only--I often wonder, Lindon, if ever we quite realize the whole wonder of life--of this--of friendship, of youth? It's all slipping by and it's so good, and we make so little of it." Lindon rose, walked across to the window and put his arm in John's. "Scissors, you're quite an old sentimentalist. Of course it's good--and we enjoy it, at least I know I do." They watched the sunset fade in silence. When a last line of flame had died into the grey bank of cloud, John spoke. It was evidently the end of some thoughts. "It will have been worth it--when it all ends and we look back. I've been lucky." "Ends? What a morbid fellow you are! Why ends? It's all just beginning, Scissors! Why we've got the world at our feet!" Lindon laughed. It was so hearty and infectious that at any other time, John would have laughed too. All's letter had upset him a little. He shivered in his chair. "You know, it's silly, Lindon--but I feel there's a tragedy coming. Life's just too good--it won't behave always like this. It waits and then pounces and you are in its grip." "Rot!--Scissors. Let's have the light on, it's getting creepy." "No--I want you to play--" "What, in the dark?" "Please--play that Brahms again--I can see all kinds of pictures." For a moment, Lindon hesitated and then, seeing the earnest appeal in John's eyes, shook him playfully and went over to the grand. "I shall have to feel my way, Scissors."