In which the narrator, wandering the poetic cloisters and libraries of Oxford, finds himself entangled in the youthful follies of romantic infatuation, culminating in a comic escapade thwarted by a watchful father and a sprained ankle. Upon the death of his stern father, he inherits a melancholy estate and sets out for London, passing through familiar haunts and reflecting on old friendships and faded adventures with a mingling of wistfulness and newfound resolve.