"Joking, my dear fellow? Of course I was joking! Did you think I really was in earnest when I said that I was so handsome, and was engaged already, et cetera, and so forth, as one of my friends used to say? I was jesting! For on my sacred word of honor, I am not engaged to any one--and yet I could not marry Lucy. I am wedded already--to my own ideas! I am not my own master--and yet I have no mistress! "But I ought not to be tiring you in this way. Why didn't you ask me if I was joking at first? Of course I was! I was laughing all the time and teasing you. It's enough to make me die a-laughing to think we were going to murder each other for joking. I was plaguing you! for I saw at once from what you said that you were hopelessly in----well, well! I won't tell your secrets. "Yours truly, "Charles HOFFLAND." IX. "Mr. HOFFLAND: "I am very glad you were joking, and I am glad you have said so with manly courtesy--though I am at a loss to understand why you wished to 'tease' me. But I don't take offence, and am sure the whole matter was a jest. I hope you will not jest with me any more upon such a subject--I am very hasty; and my experience has told me that most men that fall in duels, are killed for this very jesting. "As to what you say about my admiring Miss Mowbray, it is true in some degree, and I am not offended. As far as my part goes, we are as good friends as ever. "Yours truly, "J. DENIS." X. "Dear JACK: "Your apology is perfectly satisfactory.--But I forgot! I made the apology myself! Well, it's all the same, and I am glad we haven't killed each other--for then, you know, we would have been dead now. "Come round this evening to my lodging--one corner from Gloucester street, by the college, you know--and we'll empty a jolly bottle, get up a game of ombre with Mowbray, and make a night of it. Oh! I forgot!--my key has disappeared: I don't see it any where, and so, to my great regret, your visit must be deferred. What a pity! "We shall meet this evening, when we shall embrace each other--figuratively--and pledge everlasting friendship. "Devotedly till death, "Charles HOFFLAND."