First Love

I started, I was struck dumb… .

I could have bowed down in adoration to those shoes… .

I would gladly, I felt, have kissed every fold of that dress and apron.

the sunshine, streaming in through the blind, shed a soft light over her fluffy golden curls, her innocent neck, her sloping shoulders, and tender untroubled bosom.

It seemed to me I had known her a long while and had never known anything nor lived at all till I met her… .

I was all hope and anticipation, was a little frightened of something, and full of wonder at everything, and was on the tiptoe of expectation

This unexpectedly rapid fulfilment of my secret desires both delighted and appalled me. I

address myself to you,’ she wrote, ‘as one gentlewoman to another gentlewoman

‘I had no first love,’ he said at last; ‘I began with the second.’