114 MEMOIR OF GEOKGK WILSON. CHAP. III. 



know/ says S- , bristling up, for the very question had 

 awakened a wild shout of laughter ; ' I don't know, but I would 

 not, at any rate, like to be turned into your hat! Was it not 

 exquisite ? So much for the ' restless hat.' .... 



"We have received the most gratifying intelligence from 

 Eussia. Samuel is fast recovering, and was able to dictate a 

 portion of the last letter. He was very ill ; a whole month 

 delirious : he will likely come home, and not think of Berlin 

 at all." 



" LABORATORY, Friday Evening. 



" I have finished my fourth discourse on chemistry, and the 

 knife which mended this pen has just been absolved from the 

 cutting of corks so as to fit accurately the bottles which serve 

 so many useful purposes. I shall, however, take up no time 

 with a recital of the various perilous risks which fragile tubes 

 run, and how they escaped being broken, etc. etc. 



" Let me take other topics, though not to be less egotistical, 

 for I am about to recount to you so many particulars of my own 

 most wonderful doings. Well, an odd enough incident occurred 

 to me the other day. When entering the College, I saw in its 

 post- office, in a hand which I did not know, a small note, 

 marked ' George Wilson,' which, presuming it must be for me, 

 as there has been no G. W. about college since I joined it, I im- 

 mediately dragged out, and promised Mr. Borrowman his two- 

 pence next day. On opening the epistle, I was startled by the 

 first words ' Dearest George,' and, on turning to the end, scarcely 

 less so by the concluding term, ' Yours in love, AGNES Y. S. M.' 

 You may guess what kind of letter it was ; inquiries after the 

 health of the G. W. addressed, protestations of fond admiration, 

 and a curious declaration that the correspondent, all the time 

 specified, was suffering under toothache, which she declared 

 would be dispelled, as by a 'farrys wand,' by the sight of her 

 beloved, and some more of such stuff. Perfectly puzzled, I read 

 it over and over again ; there was no other G. W. known or re- 

 gistered about College ; it must be for me. I did not know any 

 one, high or low, named Agnes ; so that, unless some servant 

 maid or the like had fallen in love with me ! and taken this 

 modest plan of saying so, T could not tell who could be intended. 



