If the portraits of our absent friends are pleasant to us, which renew our memory of them and relieve our regret for their absence by a false and empty consolation, how much more pleasant are letters which bring us the written characters of the absent friend.
Héloïse d'Argenteuil, The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
absence, company, consolation, friends, friendship, images, letters, longing, memories, missing, pictures, pleasure, portraits, regret