7.15 P.M. W. sitting by the open parlor window. Had been out today. "Enjoyed the airing—it was a great benefaction." And—"The evening has its own beauty, too—here, as I sit close to its best effects of rest and quiet."
Boyle had told me at the Club last evening that Wilson Eyre had been over to the cemetery in Camden and made some sketches for W., but W. told me now that Eyre had not been in to see him. "And if he makes a design, the question will still remain, will it suit me—what are its impressions upon me. And then there are practical matters to be considered—to raise the money to pay for it." He said: "I hold my negative, to be used if necessary." Boyle has put the matter in Eyre's hands, as belonging properly to him. W. admitted—"Perhaps it does rather come into the province of an architect."
Asked me specifically about the Club meeting. When I spoke of after-features—"the chat with the boys," as he put it—he added—"I've no doubt that is the best part of it—the part I would most enjoy—a royal feast, taken as it may be." And then he added: "If I could come—perhaps some day I can—I'm sure it would be a great enjoyment to me to simply sit there, and see all of them about me." I laughingly put in—"Why not come over some time? If you will come, we will provide you the lightest carriage we can find." He, taking it more seriously—"That is a proposition to remember—I shall train [?] it in my memory."
We made arrangements at the Club for Clifford, Williams, Morris, Harned and I to meet Brinton at his house next Monday a week to discuss the Whitman birthday. Brinton will send us 50 copies "and more on demand" of the Bruno pamphlet when out. W. "glad he so well remembers—is so disposed." And Brinton said further—the reason it is not already out, he is waiting for a reproduction of the Bruno statue at Rome.
W. said Thayer—"W. W. Thayer—from Cambridge—was here today. We had a good talk. He is a man Brinton should meet, and who should meet Brinton. He has a great notion of the value of Italy to modern life—says it is vastly underrated. He seems to be commissioned by somebody or other to write a book about Italy. He says of the Papacy, for instance—that strange as it may sound to say it, there is no country in the European-American world in which so little is made of the Papacy as in Italy. I have often wondered myself how strangely religious forms, conventions, stupidities, orthodoxies, persist in America—in this land." He alluded to Garibaldi: "I have seen him and I liked him; he always interested me, though I cannot say I ever was enthused. Thayer talked of Italian things in a way that interested me."