Of whom should I take counsel?
There was a bird singing over me; I wondered if that sweet night-song was all of love.

Alas! that I had not been more into the world of women--their ways and fashions were all mysteries to me.
"Faint heart never won fair lady," says the old proverb, and it ran through my mind.

I resolved to try my fortune.

If she did not love me, why then, life held nothing more for me.

If I could not win her I would never ask the love of woman more, but live out my life with Clare.
Like many other anxious lovers, I lay awake all night, wondering what I should say to her, how I should woo her, in what words I should ask her to be my wife.