“It’s the most beautiful party I’ve ever seen,” Helen said to me as we walked through. I was in a haze, or a daze. “Come on,” she said, and led me to the top of the great sweeping staircase. And there we stood, and greeted the guests as they arrived, in ones and twos and sixes and sevens. It was as though each of them were escorting a memory. Friends from my childhood came in, people I had known since just after I was born. Elementary school walked before me, and high school, and summer camp, and college, and conservatory. Friends of my parents who had never changed came and reminded me of a life I had once led and of the life I had once supposed I would lead. Friends I had met through Helen came. Friends from England and from Russia and from Germany and from other countries came, piano friends, to remind me of all the adventures I had had in the ten years previous. People I knew too well and people I hoped to know better filed in, in troops and tangles. Nick showed up; I’d invited him but had never had a response, and I’d assumed he wouldn’t come. “God, Harry,” he said as he looked around. “Helen! Christ!” he said. “You look like—wow!” And then he drifted off into the galleries. “God, is this your life?” he asked, and then laughed; from the corner of my eye I could see him starting to pick up one of the waiters. Bernard also came. He had told me that he wanted to come, but he had said until the last minute that he might make it or might not. We had continued to talk from time to time by phone, and I was very pleased when he arrived. I introduced him to Helen at the top of the stairs. “I hope we’ll get to chat later,” he said, as he politely moved into the big gallery, where he spotted some other friends who had come from England. All the people at my party were dressed as well as they could be; some looked beautiful, the others closer to beautiful than I had seen them before. The soft light, turned pink as it reflected off all those peonies, made each one look calm and joyful. I continued to greet the arrivals, while the air behind me echoed with delight.