A portion of the Manuscript now presented itself, not a little perplexing from the frequent erasures and interlineations, whilst not seldom, these were a second time crossed out with the pen, as if the writer could not exactly make up his mind, whether the incidents noted should remain at all, or in what terms they should be expressed. Thus, for example, by holding up the paper to the light, the words “College Pranks” were with some difficulty discernible. These had been erased, and for pranks, the word “Vagaries” was substituted. This word also had been rejected, and, as appeared from the ink at no great distance of time, “College Follies” was inscribed in a larger hand, as if intended for the head of a chapter. But of these “Pranks,” “Vagaries,” and “Follies,” there were not many which seemed recorded for any other purpose than for the moralizing sentiments and reflections which seemed to have accompanied the recollection of them. The anecdote which follows, from the warmth and earnestness which the partly pleasing and partly painful remembrance, evidently excited in the writer, must long and sensibly have occupied his mind. It is communicated in substance thus. After about a year’s residence in the university, an accident introduced him to the society of a lovely young widow, whose brother was a respectable tradesman, but had occupations which occasioned him to be much absent from home. His sister kept his house, and in her brother’s absence had many lively parties, composed principally of females of the better class in the mercantile line, and of young gownsmen. He frequented her society, till a very strong attachment was mutually formed and avowed. Marriage, as it would have been the utter ruin of both parties, was never mentioned by either, but a tender and affectionate intercourse took place, which had subsisted for many months,—[Here the manuscript has such blots and erasures, that many lines are totally illegible.]—The narrative is afterwards thus resumed:—In absence they corresponded for a long time with the most unabated attachment, when at length, (for tenderness is sharp-sighted) our hero fancied he perceived the style of his widow to be somewhat colder. Her letters were less frequent; they now contained excuses for their brevity, and after a while they were altogether remitted.