as they
walked round the garden in the twilight of the summer evenings, talking
over the many subjects mentioned in the letters which had passed
constantly. It seemed as if there were very few to whom Guy would ever
give his confidence; but that once bestowed, it was with hardly any
reserve, and that was his great relief and satisfaction to pour out his
whole mind, where he was sure of sympathy.

To her, then, he confided how much provoked he was with himself, his
'first term,' he said, 'having only shown him what an intolerable fool
he had to keep in order.' By his account, he could do nothing 'without
turning his own head, except study, and that stupefied it.' 'Never was
there a more idle fellow; he could work himself for a given time, but
his sense would not second him; and was it not most absurd in him to
take so little pleasure in what was his duty, and enjoy only what was
bad for him?'

He had tried boating, but it had distracted him from his work; so he had
been obliged to give it up, and had done so in a hasty vehement manner,
which had caused offence, and for which he blamed himself. It had
been the same with other things, till he had left himself no regular
recreation but walking and music. 'The last,' he said, 'might engross
him in the same way; but he thought (here he hesitated a little) there
were higher ends for music, which made it come under Mrs. Edmonstone's
rule, of a thing to be used guardedly, not disused.' He had resumed
light reading, too, which he had nearly discontinued before he went to
Oxford. 'One wants something,' he said, 'by way of refreshment, where
there is no sea nor rock to look at, and no Laura and Amy to talk to.'

He had made one friend, a scholar of his own college, of the name of
Wellwood. This name had been his attraction; Guy was bent on friendship
with him; if, as he tried to make him out to be, he was the son of that
Captain Wellwood whose death had weighed so heavily on his grandfather's
conscience, feeling almost as if it were his duty to ask forgiveness in
his grandfather's name, yet scarcely knowing how to venture on advances
to one to whom his name had such associations. However, they had
gradually drawn together, and at length entered on the subject, and Guy
then found he was the nephew, not the son of Captain Wellwood; indeed,
his former belief was founded on a miscalculation, as the duel had
taken place twenty-eight years ago. He now heard all his grandfather had
wis