This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt:...a serious obstacle to my studies. I found that I could read whole pages, word by word, without attaching any meaning to them. I was continually tempted to rise from my seat and watch the house opposite. I ceased to be an early riser; I delayed lighting my lamp when it was getting dusk, to sit and watch the glowing cinders in the fire. It was winter time: and one day when the rain was falling, making pools in the smoky garden opposite, and the drops kept gathering on ledges and window-sills, and falling with a continual plash, I stood a long time at the window and felt as lonely as I had felt in the old times. But at last I made a solemn resolution to avoid the place, and apply myself wholly to my studies; not thinking thus to come to love her less, but choosing this as the best means of winning her one day. For as yet I felt that I could not even speak to her of my affection. I was poor. Even if I won this scholarship, which I felt now I must do, my future was still uncertain. The growing kindness of her father towards me was another reason for my silence. I felt that to have spoken to her in secret of my feeling towards her would be a wrong done to him, and once when I saw her coming down the street I turned aside as if I had not seen her. Her father invited me to his house several times; but I excused myself each time, and he ceased at last to invite me. The examination-day arrived at last; and I presented myself, and was one of the two chosen among four competitors. I was to start for the college in a few days. It seemed to me very hard to leave her for three years, trusting to the hope that she would form no attachment in all that time; but my mind was made up. "She will love me the better, perhaps," thought I, "when...