506 PRÆTERITA-III

Mrs. Liddell dined by command at Blenheim: but the girls were not commanded; and as I had been complaining of never getting a sight of them lately, after knowing them from the nursery, Alice said that she thought, perhaps, if I would come round after papa and mamma were safe off to Blenheim, Edith and she might give me a cup of tea and a little singing, and Rhoda show me how she was getting on with her drawing and geometry, or the like. And so it was arranged. The night was wild with snow, and no one likely to come round to the Deanery after dark. I think Alice must have sent me a little note, when the eastern coast of Tom Quad was clear. I slipped round from Corpus through Peckwater, shook the snow off my gown, and found an armchair ready for me, and a bright fireside, and a laugh or two, and some pretty music looked out, and tea coming up.

31. Well, I think Edith had got the tea made, and Alice was just bringing the muffins to perfection-I don’t recollect that Rhoda was there; (I never did, that anybody else was there, if Edith was; but it is all so like a dream now, I’m not sure)-when there was a sudden sense of some stars having been blown out by the wind, round the corner; and then a crushing of the snow outside the house, and a drifting of it inside; and the children all scampered out to see what was wrong, and I followed slowly;-and there were the Dean and Mrs. Liddell standing just in the middle of the hall, and the footmen in consternation, and a silence,-and-

“How sorry you must be to see us, Mr. Ruskin!” began at last Mrs. Liddell.

“I never was more so,” I replied. “But what’s the matter?”

“Well,” said the Dean, “we couldn’t even get past the parks; the snow’s a fathom deep in the Woodstock Road. But never mind; we’ll be very good and quiet, and keep out of the way. Go back to your tea, and we’ll have our dinner downstairs.”

[Version 0.04: March 2008]