No kidding. I mean, on the one hand, hard to see how things could have gotten worse at this point, or in the years immediately after. (After this aborted attempt at reconciliation, Thomas publishes his "Reflections of an Apolitical Man". A few months before the German surrender. It's a resounding flop. The German defeat and end of censorship happen, which means Heinrich's "Der Untertan" can finally get published. It's his biggest success ever with critics and audience alike, and he's hailed as Germany's greatest writer of the day. Thomas is writhing in jealousy in his diaries, imaging Heinrich gloating, clinging to the idea all this Heinrich praise is just the critics having a go at him. And he'd have reacted this way, I imagine, both if he'd read the reply letter (of course) and if he hadn't but had been freshly reconciled with Heinrich. (Like I said elsewhere, evben after Heinrich was dead and Thomas was a nobel prize winner hailed internationally as Germany's greatest writer by 90% of the people, it just needed one measly review going "actually, Heinrich..." for him to note "old agony reviving". Otoh, if we've learned anything, it's that things always can get worse. Maybe the reconciliation would not have happened, - which was important to both of them - , since it came about by Thomas showing up with flowers and a get well card after Heinrich had had a dangerous operation in 1922. And only ten years later, in 1932, Heinrich wrote to Thomas after the later had written a positive letter about Heinrich's latest work: "Dein Brief wird das Schönste und Beste bleiben, dass ich über mein Buch lesen darf. Ich danke Dir. Du warst mir in jedem Augenblick des Lebens der Nächste und bist es auch hier wieder." ("In every moment of my life, you were the person closest to me, and in this you are again.") Which is as good an admission as Thomas could have wanted that Heinrich did have a brüderliches Welterlebnis himself.