All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me.

I was dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her.

There is no folly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the rashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission.

Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me: a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was.

Oh, I have no respect for myself when I think of that act!--an agony of inward contempt masters me.