Had they ever to deny themselves a wish, much less a want?
Literally and figuratively, their lives seemed to wander through flowery pleasure-paths.

Here was cold, biting mid-winter for her, and such as her--for those poor beggars almost a season of death; but to Miss Duncombe and her companions, a happy, merry time, when flowers still bloomed, and fires crackled, and comforts and luxuries were piled around them like fairy gifts.

What did they know of the meaning of the word, so terrific to the poor?
What was winter to them?
But Ruth fancied that Mr Bellingham looked as if he could understand the feelings of those removed from him by circumstance and station.

He had drawn up the windows of his carriage, it is true, with a shudder.
Ruth, then, had been watching him.
Yet she had no idea that any association made her camellia precious to her.

She believed it was solely on account of its exquisite beauty that she tended it so carefully.