Excerpt

"Do you know...since I've been away, I think of you more often than of any one else in this part of the world...The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don't realize it.  You really are a part of me."

She turned her bright believing eyes to me, and the tears came up in them slowly.  "How can it be like that, when you know so many people, and when I've disappointed you so?  Ain't it wonderful...how much people can mean to each other?...You'll always remember me when you think about old times, won't you?  And I guess everybody thinks about old times, even the happiest people."

- Willa Cather, My Ántonia