Returned to town this morning after a short conversation with Abby, somehow unaccountably relieved from my low spirits. Instead of feeling gloomy at so long a separation from her compared to those I formerly had, my heart seemed relieved from a load. I presume this course had been pressing upon my mind in anticipation, and so, when it once was commenced my courage rose to the trial. Morning at the Office. Conversation with George and reading Law. In the afternoon, reading Mr. Burke’s Speech on the plan of Economical Reform. This and a conversation with Mr. Degrand at George’s Office made it pass rapidly.

Mr. Degrand came to propose to me a partnership. I was to furnish a Capital, and we were to take his experience in the Market to loan Money on good Notes for short spaces of time. This no doubt would be a profitable plan, but the question immediately occurring where my Capital was to come from, his idea to meet that was amusing. I was to ask my father to give me twenty thousand dollars, and he intimated only, that I was to borrow as much from Mr. Brooks on the strength of my engagement with Abby. Of course such a proposition was absurd, in all it’s faces. I mentioned it here only as one of the curious occurrences in my life. I laughed the matter off as well as I could and so we parted. But he will not apply to me again. I sat in my Office this evening for the first time and read Burke.