The general principles laid down in this interview did not strike my youthful mind so forcibly as the suggestion that it was better to announce my engagement by letter than to wait until I returned home, as thus I might draw the hottest fire while still in safe harbor, where Cousin Gerrit could help me defend the weak points in my position.

So I lingered at Peterboro to prolong the dream of happiness and postpone the conflict I feared to meet.
But the Judge understood the advantage of our position as well as we did, and wasted no ammunition on us.

Being even more indignant at my cousin than at me, he quietly waited until I returned home, when I passed through the ordeal of another interview, with another dissertation on domestic relations from a financial standpoint.

These were two of the most bewildering interviews I ever had.

They succeeded in making me feel that the step I proposed to take was the most momentous and far-reaching in its consequences of any in this mortal life.