Alexander McCall Smith's latest serial novel, "Corduroy Mansions," reaches its 100th and final installment at the Telegraph website.
It ends, as it began, as it continued, in a gentle way, with this bit of poetry on friendship:
Dear friends, now in London,
Here and there, in their various forms
Of isolation or companionship,
People begin a journey into night;
Happy they go to bed, or sad –
The choice to a very great extent
Is theirs. Happiness is a state
Which few can define –
I shall not try – but even those
Who never attempt a definition
Know from experience,
That happiness flows most readily
From friendship, from the company
Of those we would rather not
Be without: a double negative
Is a way of saying that which
You really believe;
And I believe that, I really do.
Friendship is a guise of love,
And love is friendship
Dressed up for a night out.
That we are together, here at this moment,
Alive, one with another,
Is the most delicious treat;
I, for one, ask for no more,
I, for one, am replete.
