.

Did I not know the nature of your disorder and the state of your
_gizzard_, I should really be surprised at the commencement, and, indeed,
the whole tenor of your letter, but as it is I can excuse and feel for
you.

Had I commenced a letter with the French _Helas! helas!_ it would have
been no more than might reasonably have been expected considering the
desolate situation of New Haven and the gloomy prospects before me. But
for you, who are in the very vortex of fashionable life and surrounded by
the amusements and bustle of the metropolis of New England, for you to
exclaim, "How lonely I am!" is unpardonable, or at most admits of but one
excuse, to wit, that you can plead the feelings of the youth who
exclaimed, "Gods annihilate both time and space and make two lovers
happy!"

You suppose I am so much taken up with the ladies and other good things
in New Haven that I have not time to think of one of my old friends.
Alas! Morse, there are no ladies or anything else to occupy my attention.
They are all gone and we have no amusements. Even old Value has deserted
us, whose music, though an assemblage of "unharmonious sounds," is
infinitely preferable to the harsh grating thunder of his brother. New
Haven is, indeed, this winter a dreary place. I wrote you about a month
since and did then what you wish me now to do,--I mentioned all that is
worth mentioning, which, by the way, is very little, about New Haven and
its inhabitants.

Since then I have been to New York and saw the Miss Radcliffs, and, in
passing through Stamford, the Miss Davenports. The mention of the name of
Davenport would at one time have excited in your breast emotions
unutterable, but now, though Ann is as lovely as ever, your heart
requires the influence of another Hart to quicken its pulsations.... Last
but not least comes the all-conquering, the angelic queen of Harts. I
have not seen her since she left New Haven, but have heard from her
sister Eliza that she is in good health and is going in April to New York
with Mrs. Jarvis (her sister) to spend the summer and perhaps a longer
time, where she will probably break many a proud heart and bend many a
stubborn knee. I fear, Morse, unless you have her firmly in your toils, I
fear she may not be able to withstand every attack, for New York abounds
with elegant and accomplished young men.

You mention that you have again changed your mind as to the business
which you intend to pursue. I really thou