It was a happier time still; for, I loved Min, and I thought that Min loved me.
The very seasons seemed to draw me nearer to her.
In the spring the violets' scented breath recalled her whenever I inhaled their fragrance; while, the nightingale's amorous trills--we had nightingales to visit us in our suburb, closely situated as it was to London--appeared to me to embody the impassioned words that Tennyson puts in the mouth of his love-wooing sea maiden-- "We will kiss sweet kisses, and speak sweet words; O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten, With pleasure and love and jubilee!" And, in the early summer, when smiling June came in with her flowery train, making a garden of the whole earth, the twining roses, of crimson and white and red, were all emblematic of my darling.

They were love- gages of her own sweet self; for, was she not my rose, my violet, that budded and blossomed in purple and pink alone for me--the idol of my heart, my fancy's queen?
With all these fond imaginings, however, I did not see much of her.
I had very few opportunities for unfettered intercourse.

I believe I could number on the fingers of one hand all the special little tete-a- tete conversations that Min and I ever had together.

This was not owing to any fault of mine, you may be sure; but was, entirely, the result of "circumstances," over which neither of us had "any control." "Society" was the cause of it all.

Had her mother been never so willing, and the fates never so kindly lent their most propitious aid to my suit, it is quite probable that we might not have had the chance of associating much more together than we did; nor would our interviews have happened oftener, I think.
You see people of the upper and middle-classes have far less facility afforded them, than is common in lower social grades, for intimate acquaintance; and really know very little, in the long run, of those of whom they may become enamoured and subsequently marry, prior to the tying of the nuptial noose.
Laura and Augustus, may, it is true, meet each other out frequently, in the houses of their mutual friends at parties, and at various gatherings of one sort and another; but what means have they of learning anything trustworthy respecting the inner self of their respective enchanter or enchantress?
Do you think they can manage thus to summarise their several points and merits, during the pauses of the Trois Temps, or while nailing "a rover" at croquet, or, mayhap, when promenading at the Botanical?
I doubt it much.
Professor Owen, it is said, will, if you submit to his notice a couple of inches of the bone of any bird, beast, fish, or reptile, at once describe to you the characteristics of the animal to which it belonged; its habits, and everything connected with it; besides telling you when and where it lived and died, and whether it existed at the pre-Adamite period or not--and that, too, without your giving him the least previous information touching the osseous substance about which you asked his opinion.
But, granting that the most gigantic theory might be built up on some slighter practical evidence, I would defy anyone--even that philosophising German who evolved a camel from the depths of his inner moral consciousness--to determine the capabilities of any young lady for the future onerous duties of wife and mother, and mistress of a household, merely from hearing her say what coloured ice she would have after the heated dance; or, from her statements that the evening was "flat" or "nice," the season "dull" or "busy," and the heroine of the last new novel "delightful," while the villain was correspondingly "odious." He couldn't do it.
The commonplace conversation of every-day society is no criterion for character.
With Jemima, the maid-of-all-work, and Bob, the baker's assistant, her "young man," it is quite a different thing.