They seemed to be pressing themselves at the sun." And then the celandines ever after drew her with a little spell.
Anthropomorphic as she was, she stimulated him into appreciating things thus, and then they lived for her.

She seemed to need things kindling in her imagination or in her soul before she felt she had them.

And she was cut off from ordinary life by her religious intensity which made the world for her either a nunnery garden or a paradise, where sin and knowledge were not, or else an ugly, cruel thing.
So it was in this atmosphere of subtle intimacy, this meeting in their common feeling for something in Nature, that their love started.
Personally, he was a long time before he realized her.

For ten months he had to stay at home after his illness.

For a while he went to Skegness with his mother, and was perfectly happy.