Read this excerpt from The First Men in the Moon.

And as I stood there stupid, and perplexed, with this dumbfounding relic in my hand, something very soft and light and chill touched my hand for a moment and ceased to be, and then a thing, a little white speck, drifted athwart a shadow. It was a tiny snowflake, the first snowflake, the herald of the night.
What is the author’s purpose in describing the first snowflake?

To signal Bedford’s limited time
To foreshadow coming death
To describe the moon’s beauty
To explain Bedford’s confusion