Weldon called for �Bleak House�.
  15. Tuesday.    In doors all day, never a soul
calling till evening, when came Brightly and Brown;
and it being my seven-and-twentieth birthday, I must even go
to the Shades, there to drink and talk till midnight.
  16. Wednesday.     Rain all day long.   Writing, in-doors.
  17. Thursday.   Writing & drawing.   Brown came at
6 in the evening,  and after he had decorated himself at his
boarding-house, (whither Alf Waud now resides, and whither I
intend to;) � off by the Cars up town  to Lamartine or
Lafayette place; � a stylish private house, where the migratory
Amusement & Intellectual-Marriage-Accelerating Society is
this night held.        Two handsome rooms, rival artificial dog-stars
therein, in the shape of huge fires;  girls about and men.
The minutes of last week &c read over with due mystery &
closed doors,  the company mixed.       A Scene from Howard
Payne �s �Brutus � read, � dismal.      A tepid see-saw
rhyming  Indian Legend read.        Charley recites �the Song
of the Shirt,� well.        Another dreary business read.      I
sell �em all by reciting  Doctor Johnsons �Hermit hoar�, the
conclusion of which produced a roar.       Alfred Brown essays to
read Milton, does it wretchedly, girls talk and one laughs.
He waxes irate and sulks all the evening, after venting a