Morning at the Office. Weather very much changed from being mild to a tolerably severe degree of cold. I passed the time much as usual. Finished the fourth volume of Williston and not having the next to continue with, I was obliged to take up Hall’s Law Journal.1 I am more and more worried about my Father’s affairs. The Fire and Marine pay no Dividend as I am told, and thus I am cut off from almost every source of supply. I went to see Mr. Brooks and talked a little with Mr. Welsh, which made the whole of my morning. Regret follows waste, but little amendment is the result.

A Tenant came and applied to me for the House, or rather Tenement next to what was Miss Longhurst’s. This was the only person today. The afternoon was passed in reading Demosthenes, and taking refuge in the beauties of the style from the anxieties relating to personal matters. I made good progress today, and relished it more.

In the evening, the usual meetings of the Brooks family which had been interrupted by the melancholy event, were resumed at my House. This was on the whole also the most pleasant we have had. I felt rather more at my ease, and was able to carry through the evening more feeling of my own situation. But there is still something wanting. The meeting was tolerably gay, considering the circumstances. How soon grief wears off from the young and active. We can none of us expect to be lamented beyond a short day or two after we cease to live.