538 PRÆTERITA-III

and conscience-forty-five days, old. And I very thankfully took her hand out of her uncle’s, and received her in trust, saying-I do not remember just what,-but certainly feeling much more strongly than either her uncle or she did, that the gift, both to my mother and me, was one which we should not easily bear to be again withdrawn. I put her into my father’s carriage at the door, and drove her out to Denmark Hill.

63. Here is her own account of what followed between my mother and her:-

“I was received with great kindness by the dear old lady, who did not inspire me, as she did so many other people, with a feeling of awe! We were the best of friends, from the first. She, ever most considerate of what would please me, and make me happy; and I, (ever a lover of old ladies!) delighted to find it so easily possible to please her.

“Next morning she said, ‘Now tell me frankly, child, what you like best to eat, and you shall have it. Don’t hesitate; say what you’d really like,-for luncheon to-day, for instance.’ I said, truthfully, ‘Cold mutton, and oysters’; and this became a sort of standing order (in months with the letter r !)-greatly to the cook’s amusement.

“Of course I respectfully called the old lady ‘Mrs. Ruskin’; but in a day or two, she told me she didn’t like it, and would I call her ‘Aunt’ or ‘Auntie’? I readily did so.

“The days flew in that lovely garden, and as I had only been invited to stay a week, until Mr. Ruskin should return home,* I felt miserable when he did come, thinking I must go back to London streets, and noise; (though I was always very happy with my good uncle and aunts).

“So, when the last evening came, of my week, I said, with some hesitation, ‘Auntie, I had better go back to my uncle’s to-morrow!’

* I must have been going away somewhere the day after I brought her to Denmark Hill.

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