d the chemist's son to come and join me in my
studies. I also wrote a letter to the gentleman who had kindly furnished
me with funds to continue my studies abroad, and in due time I received
the following letter:--

"MY DEAR CHARLES.--I am delighted to hear that you have at length
settled down again to earnest study. I hope you will not get into any
more scrapes, or another time you may not get off scot-free. Duelling is
a very wicked and a very silly practice, and does no credit to either
party; therefore I hope you will never seek a quarrel, but do all you
can to steer clear of pugnacious persons. You have now been more than a
year at the university, and you write so seldom that you leave me in the
dark as to what progress you have made during your stay. I wish you
would write oftener, as I am very much interested to know how you are
getting on. Now for a bit of home news. Your uncle the admiral, shortly
after your departure, took to himself a young and pretty wife. I am
afraid, however, instead of the happy home he contemplated, he sees too
late that he has done a foolish thing. She is a desperate flirt, and
rumours of such a nature are afloat in the town, that I should not be
surprised if before long he sues for a divorce. He has never been the
same man since you left, and looks considerably older. The
disappointment that he felt at your determination to go your own way
instead of his has been indeed a great blow to him. I constantly
remonstrated with him on his views of your conduct towards him, but you
know how obstinate he is. He grumbles that you left his house in a huff
without even taking leave of him, but he has never had the curiosity to
ask what has become of you, and hasn't an idea that I know of your
whereabouts.

"I called at your friend's the chemist's yesterday. His son told me that
you had written to him advising him to join you in Jena. He would be
delighted to go, and I do not think his father is averse to sending him.
He is a superior lad, and I am not prejudiced enough to advise you to
cut his acquaintance on the mere ground of his having been born in a
humbler sphere of life than yourself. The admiral may have his
prejudices, and to a certain extent I agree with him; that is to say
that one ought rather to seek acquaintances within his own class than
out of it. Still, when we meet a man of superior mind in a class a
little below our own, I see no reason why we should draw the line of
society to