Mansfield's softening of heart towards Lawrence during the last months of her life allowed for a gradual reconciliation to begin for Murry as well. Apparently, some time in December 1922, Murry wrote to Lawrence in New Mexico, ‘suggesting’ that their ‘relation should be renewed’ (RDHL: 98). He responded, cautiously, on 30 December: ‘Heaven knows what we all are, and how we should feel if we met, now that we are changed. We'll have to meet and see’ (LDHL 4: 364). Lawrence's softening might have been hastened by Murry's positive review of Aaron's Rod in August. Nevertheless, Murry's need for Lawrence had only become acute after Mansfield's death. As it was in 1915, when Lawrence had offered a distraught Murry emotional intimacy to assuage the pain of Mansfield's (temporary) abandonment, so now, in 1923, Lawrence would offer a similar – if more guarded – sympathy to a Murry devastated by his awareness of an abandonment that was final. The letter he received from Lawrence on 2 February 1923 made certain the possibility of genuine reconciliation: