First Love

I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.

tender untroubled bosom

felt all through my being a sort of intense blissfulness that verged on imbecility.

imperious, caressing, mocking

wary, sly, and rapacious

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… .