If he had been at all eloquent, the same style of eloquence would have done almost as well after dinner as after breakfast.

But the secret springs of love speech were dried up in his brain by the haunting consciousness that much was expected of him.

He had never before thought of marrying and had not yet in his life found himself for any length of time constantly face to face in conversation with a young girl, with limitations of propriety and the fear of failure before his eyes.

The situation was new and uncomfortable.

He felt like a man who has got a hat which does not belong to him, which does not fit him and which will not stay on his head in a high wind.