Morning at the Office, occupied much as usual. Read a portion of the Massachusetts Reports and other books of Law. Afternoon, Secret Journals of Congress. Evening, Boswell’s Life of Johnson in connection with Dr. J.’s works. So that the day was a very busy one and therefore produced little to record here. My spirits are now on the whole, better than at any time since I have lived in Boston. I like my accommodations better, and follow a more regular and quiet course of life, with the satisfaction of more useful and improving pursuits. It is true that Abby is dissatisfied, which worries me, but I have too many good reasons to yield to what can only be a momentary feeling on her part. At any rate, I will see, time will test the experiment, and if I should then see a clear termination to my engagement, I might be likely to give up a short time willingly. But not while that question remains in doubt. Gorham Brooks is positively going to marry Miss Shepherd. He is the only one of Abby’s brothers who has not been civil to me, and I have now a difficult part to play. Abby was slightly displeased with me for declining to pay the usual visit in such cases, but I did not tell her my principal reason.