101
  24.  Tuesday.   Down town with Shepherd,
to Harper�s.  Story not yet set up.  Met Banks
coming out of the engravers department, evidently
in Bellew�s business.        To the �Evening Post�;
saw Maverick; Concert Room article in to-day.
Parted with Shepherd at 1; he off for Jersey.
Up town.    Boweryem with me during the evening.
  This morning the New York newspapers con-
tained tidings of the death of Prince Albert.
And this day last year, I was in Charles-
ton, South Carolina � sad enough, too.
  25.  Wednesday.   Christmas Day.   In doors
till 4 of the afternoon, then, for a walk, to Bel-
lew�s.  A fine, cold, frosty day befitting the season.
Rather lonely and meditative, none the less so for
the fact of my nationality and the hate that is ram-
pant against the dear old land that gave me birth,
now almost universally prevalent here, which, to
their own shame, some that I know of English
nativity selfishly seek to propitiate.   Thoughts, too,
of Chacombe and of home.       Found Bellew and
his brother Beckett, the latter lying in a half doze
beside the fire.        An argument on the English ques-
tion with Bellew.       Ever since his return to this
country he has disparaged � I was going to say his
own, but I know he was born in Ireland, only he
thought that a reproach when he emigrated � and