How to retain a space after floated :first-letter when the first letter is immediately followed by a space?

Question

What's an elegant solution (i.e. without adding a   to the text), to introduce a space between the drop capital and the second letter, when the first word is a single letter?

I'm trying to add drop capitals to the first letter of a paragraph. The problem I am encountering is that it looks confusing if the first word is a 1 letter word, like I, which causes the space after to disappear.

An example is below:

p::first-letter {
  font-size: 150%;
  float: left;
}

<p>Some text.</p>

<p>
    I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text.
</p>

The solution must keep the line height the same between lines in the same way that float: left does.

Answer 1

The following solution preserves the whitespace after the first character.

p {
  white-space: pre-wrap;
}

p::first-letter {
  font-size: 150%;
  float: left;
}

<p>Some text.</p>

<p>I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text. I am some long text.</p>

NB: this requires the inner html to the p to be formatted on one line and the whitespace to be correct for the rest of the line, so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of the whitespace.