I saw I must be extremely hold-off in my relations; and yet not too much so neither; for if I had no right to appear at all in the character of a suitor, I must yet appear continually, and if possible agreeably, in that of host.

It was plain I should require a great deal of tact and conduct, perhaps more than my years afforded.

But I had rushed in where angels might have feared to tread, and there was no way out of that position, save by behaving right while I was in it.

I made a set of rules for my guidance; prayed for strength to be enabled to observe them, and as a more human aid to the same end purchased a study book in law.

This being all that I could think of, I relaxed from these grave considerations; whereupon my mind bubbled at once into an effervescency of pleasing spirits, and it was like one treading on air that I turned homeward.