3rd January 1826

Talked to Percy Muzzle at lunch. He has a new white mouse.

Took him to see THE GREAT ARTICLE after school (for he knows his way around a waistcoat). He said it quite cut the cheese and was a proper bang-up weskit – Percy sometimes tries to be fast with his lingo – and we both agreed it is the pure cheddar. We went inside to have a proper look but Mr Oddenbury kept telling us to ‘stop touching it with your grubby little fingers.’ 

Percy later confided in me that he has fallen in love with a girl. Her name is Jane and she tends the bar at the Stray Cat and Mutton in Pratt Street. We went to look at her but the place was closed. I said that I thought he might do better than a mere barmaid; and he said – although he has not yet revealed his amorous sentiments to the young female in question – that I had better not say a single unkind word about his Jane, or it would come down to fisticuffs. Then he burst into tears. 

Love is a queer business and I do not think, on the whole, that I shall have much time for it when I begin to make my way in the world.