Chapter 21The month following my return to Richmond will forever be lost in the obscurity of an alcoholic stupor. I think I would have drunk myself into oblivion if I had not received a visitor at my door on the fifth week. I was told that Judge Valentine was on his deathbed, and had asked to see me. The driver said he would wait in the car.
I went to the washroom. I was repulsed by the person that stared back at me from the mirror. The month growth of beard that covered my wasted face hung like moss from its skeletal orb. The two dark, sunken cavities that stared back at me were as void, as lifeless, as any corpse I had ever viewed. I wept at the thought that not only was I now losing the only remaining person who even remotely presented a familial image, but also his last thoughts
