Emsie recovered in time to go to America, with her mother
    and Isa and Nellie:  and they all enjoyed the trip much; and
    Emsie has a London engagement.

Only once was an interviewer bold enough to enter Lewis Carroll’s sanctum.  The story has been told in The Guardian (January 19, 1898), but will bear repetition:—­

Not long ago Mr. Dodgson happened to get into correspondence with a man whom he had never seen, on some question of religious difficulty, and he invited him to come to his rooms and have a talk on the subject.  When, therefore, a Mr. X—­ was announced to him one morning, he advanced to meet him with outstretched hand and smiles of welcome.  “Come in Mr. X—­, I have been expecting you.”  The delighted visitor thought this a promising beginning, and immediately pulled out a note-book and pencil, and proceeded to ask “the usual questions.”  Great was Mr. Dodgson’s disgust!  Instead of his expected friend, here was another man of the same name, and one of the much-dreaded interviewers, actually sitting in his chair!  The mistake was soon explained, and the representative of the Press was bowed out as quickly as he had come in.

It was while Isa and one of her sisters were staying at Eastbourne that the visit to America was mooted.  Mr. Dodgson suggested that it would be well for them to grow gradually accustomed to seafaring, and therefore proposed to take them by steamer to Hastings.  This plan was carried out, and the weather was unspeakably bad—­far worse than anything they experienced in their subsequent trip across the Atlantic.  The two children, who were neither of them very good sailors, experienced sensations that were the reverse of pleasant.  Mr. Dodgson did his best to console them, while he continually repeated, “Crossing the Atlantic will be much worse than this.”

However, even this terrible lesson on the horrors of the sea did not act as a deterrent; it was as unsuccessful as the effort of the old lady in one of his stories:  “An old lady I once knew tried to check the military ardour of a little boy by showing him a picture of a battlefield, and describing some of its horrors.  But the only answer she got was, ‘I’ll be a soldier.  Tell it again!’”

The Bowman children sometimes came over to visit him at Oxford, and he used to delight in showing them over the colleges, and pointing out the famous people whom they encountered.  On one of these occasions he was walking with Maggie, then a mere child, when they met the Bishop of Oxford, to whom Mr. Dodgson introduced his little guest.  His lordship asked her what she thought of Oxford.  “I think,” said the little actress, with quite a professional aplomb, “it’s the best place in the Provinces!” At which the Bishop was much amused.  After the child had returned to town, the Bishop sent her a copy of a little book called “Golden Dust,” inscribed “From W. Oxon,” which considerably mystified her, as she knew nobody of that name!