Not at the capture of any pretty face, -- though there are a few here that would be prizes worth capturing; but really I am not skilled in that kind of archery and on the whole am not quite ready for it.

An archer needs to be better equipped, to enter those lists with any chance of success, than alas! I am at present.

I am aiming hard at the dressing up of my mind, in the sincere hope that the dressing up of my person may have some place in the after-piece.

In other words, I am so busy that I don't know what I am doing.
Asphodel was a miserable place (though I am very glad you are in it) -- my chances of success at Little River are much better.

Indeed I am very much to my mind here; were I, as I said, a little better equipped outwardly, and if my aunt Landholm only had mamma's recipe for making pumpkin pies; or, as an alternative, had the pumpkin crop this season but failed.