Am I wrong in taking my gloomy view of the prospect?
I cannot forget that this unhappy man was once my friend, and I really see no hope for him in the future.
Deliberately self-exposed to the violence of ruffians and the outbreak of disease, who is to extricate him from his shocking position?
The one person who can do it is the person whose association with him would be his ruin--Mercy Merrick.

Heaven only knows what disasters it may be my painful duty to communicate to you in my next letter! "You are so kind as to ask me to tell you something about myself and my plans.
"I have very little to say on either head.

After what I have suffered--my feelings trampled on, my confidence betrayed--I am as yet hardly capable of deciding what I shall do.

Returning to my old profession--to the army--is out of the question, in these leveling days, when any obscure person who can pass an examination may call himself my brother officer, and may one day, perhaps, command me as my superior in rank.

If I think of any career, it is the career of diplomacy.