A friend, whom I had scarcely regarded as such, during my reckless career of folly, came unexpectedly to my assistance, and offered to purchase for me a commission in the army, but I had private reasons for wishing to obtain a situation in this office.

Writing a good hand, and having been originally educated for the profession, together with the recommendation of Mr.Bassett who was related to my friend, procured me the place I now hold." "And your reasons for coming here ?" I cried, burning with curiosity.
"Pardon me, Geoffrey.

That is my secret." He spoke with the calmness of a philosopher, but I saw his emotion, as his eyes turned mechanically to the parchment he was copying, and affected an air of cheerful resignation.
The candid exposure of his past faults and follies raised, rather than sunk him in my estimation; but I was sadly disappointed at the general terms in which they were revealed.

I wanted to know every event of his private life, and this abridgment was very tantalizing.
While I was pondering these things in my heart, the pen he had grasped so tightly was flung to some distance, and he raised his fine eyes to my face.
"Thank God! Geoffrey; I have not as yet lost the faculty of feeling--that I can see and deplore the errors of the past.

When I think what I was, what I am, and what I might have been, it brings a cloud over my mind which often dissolves in tears.