MANUSCRIPT: HCL (G 3). Ink. Dated: Tuesday Evening.

PUBLICATION: Home 399-400.

Since there is no other allusion to the misunderstanding and reconciliation between John Graves and his friend, the natural inference that Henry Emmons was the friend cannot be verified (but see letter no. 160). The identity of "Mary" is also uncertain. She and Eliza Coleman seem to have been among the Dickinson commencement guests of whom ED had written in her letter to Emmons of August 8. A year earlier there had been some correspondence between Lavinia and Austin about inviting a Mary Nichols to visit them (Home 307). Another Boston girl, Mary Lyman, may have been the one (see nos. 71 and 87). "Hattie" was John Graves's younger sister. He had gone home for the summer vacation before starting his senior year at Amherst.