508 PRÆTERITA-III

Very beautiful! But just a snip too short in the petticoats,-a trip too dainty in the ankles, a dip too deep of sweetbriar-red in the ribands. Not the damsel who came to hearken, named Rhoda,¹-by any means;-but as exquisite a little spray of rhododendron ferrugineum as ever sparkled in Alpine dew.

D’Israeli saw his opening in an instant. Drawing himself to his full height, he advanced to meet Rhoda. The whole room became all eyes and ears. Bowing with kindly reverence, he waved his hand, and introduced her to-the world. “This is, I understand, the young lady in whose art-education Professor Ruskin is so deeply interested!”

And there was nothing for me but simple extinction; for I had never given Rhoda a lesson in my life, (no such luck!); yet I could not disclaim the interest,-nor disown Mr. Macdonald’s geometry! I could only bow as well as a marmot might, in imitation of the Minister; and get at once away to Corpus, out of human ken.

34. This gossip has beguiled me till I have no time left to tell what in proper sequence should have been chiefly dwelt on in this number,-the effect on my mind of the Hospice of St. Bernard, as opposed to the Hermitage of St. Bruno.² I must pass at once to the outline of some scenes in early Swiss history, of which the reader must be reminded before he can understand why I had set my heart so earnestly upon drawing the ruined towers of Fribourg, Thun, and Rheinfelden.

In the mountain kingdom of which I claimed possession by the law of love, in first seeing it from the Col de la Faucille,³ the ranges of entirely celestial mountain, the “everlasting clouds”⁴ whose glory does not fade, are arranged in clusters of summits definitely distinct in form,

¹ [Acts xii. 13.]

² [See above, p. 481.]

³ [See i. § 194; above, p. 167.]

⁴ [From Rogers’s Italy (“The Alps”): “Who first beholds those everlasting clouds,” etc. Ruskin was doubtless thinking of this passage when, in describing his own first sight of the Alps, he says, “There was no thought of their being clouds” (above, p. 115).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]