Get away at last.

Very sulky this morning--hope my father better--dearest love to you both." "PARK STREET, _4 o'clock, (May, 1850)_.
"MY DEAREST FATHER, "We got through gloriously, though at one place there was the most awkward crush I ever saw in my life--the pit at the Surrey, which I never saw, may perhaps show the like--nothing else.

The floor was covered with the ruins of ladies' dresses, torn lace and fallen flowers.

But Effie was luckily out of it, and got through unscathed--and heard people saying 'What a beautiful dress!' just as she got up to the Queen.

It was fatiguing enough but not so _awkward_ as I expected....
"The Queen looked much younger and prettier than I expected--very like her pictures, even like those which are thought to flatter most--but I only saw the profile--I could not see the front face as I knelt to her, at least without an upturning of the eyes which I thought would be unseemly--and there were but some two or three seconds allowed for the whole affair....
"The Queen gave her hand very graciously: but looked bored; poor thing, well she might be, with about a quarter of a mile square of people to bow to.
"I met two people whom I have not seen for many a day, Kildare and Scott Murray--had a chat with the former and a word with Murray, but nothing of interest...." As one of the chief literary figures of the day, Ruskin could not avoid society, and, as he tells in "Praeterita," he was rewarded for the reluctant performance of his duties by meeting with several who became his lifelong friends.