At Virginia Water we dined and changed horses. We stayed here longer
than was necessary, that I might see the lake and the ship; and Uncle
Ascott gave sixpence to an old man with a wooden leg who told us all
about it. And still I declined an inside place, and went back with
Nurse Bundle to the rumble. Early rising and the long drive began to
make me sleepy. The tame beauties of the valley of the Thames drew
little attention from my weary eyes; and I do not remember much about
the place where we next halted, except that the tea tasted of hay, and
that the bread and butter were good.
I gazed dreamily at Hounslow, despite fresh tales of Dick Turpin; and
all the successive "jogs" by which Nurse called my incapable attention
to the lamplighters, the shops, the bottles in the chemists' windows,
and Hyde Park, failed to rouse me to any intelligent appreciation of
the great city, now that I had reached it. After a long weary dream of
rattle and bustle, and dim lamps, and houses stretching upwards like
Jack's beanstalk through the chilly and foggy darkness, the carriage
stopped with one final jolt in a quiet and partially-lighted square;
and I was lifted down, and staggered into a house where the light was
as abundant and overpowering as it was feeble and inefficient without,
and, cramped in my limbs, and smothered with shawls, I could only beg
in my utter weariness to be put to bed.
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