Loved You Madly
December, 1974
He was, quite simply, the only perfect gentleman I have ever known. Ten, maybe 12 conversations in 30 years, and those mostly just courtesies from him, and very little from me. You do not, I think, walk up to the Bellini Saint Francis at the Frick and talk very easily to it; the light is too much a distraction. The work is still there and will certainly last longer than I, and a very grand gift it is. But what will we do without the presence?• • •There remains only one memory of Ellington by day...
