He walked listlessly away, and thought it all over.
For the first time he saw his infatuation clearly.

Was ever folly like his?
If she had been a girl in humble life, would he not have asked whether she had a sweetheart?
Yet he must go and give his heart to a lady without inquiry.

There, where wisdom and prudence were most needed, he had speculated like an idiot.

He saw it, and said to himself, "I have acted like a boy playing at pitch-farthing, not like a man who knew the value of his heart." And so he passed a miserable time, bemoaning the treasure that was now quite inaccessible instead of nearly, and the treasure of his own heart he had thrown away.
He awoke with a sense of misery and deep depression, and could not eat; and that was a novelty in his young and healthy life.

He drank a cup of tea, however, and then went out, to avoid his mother's tender looks of anxious inquiry.