TO THE LIGHTHOUSEcome of the Rayleys. She would feel a little tri-umphant, telling Mrs. Ramsay that the marriagehad not been a success.

But the dead, thought Lily, encountering someobstacle in her design which made her pause andponder, stepping back a foot or so, oh, the dead!she murmured, one pitied them, one brushed themaside, one had even a little contempt for them. Theyare at our mercy. Mrs. Ramsay has faded and gone,she thought. We can over-ride her wishes, improveaway her limited, old-fashioned ideas. She recedesfurther and further from us. Mockingly she seemedto see her there at the end of the corridor of yearssaying, of all incongruous things, "Marry, marry!"(sitting very upright early in the morning with thebirds beginning to cheep in the garden outside). Andone would have to say to her, It has all gone againstyour wishes. They’re happy like that; I’m happylike this. Life has changed completely. At that allher being, even her beauty, became for a moment,dusty and out of date. For a moment Lily, standingthere, with the sun hot on her back, summing up theRayleys, triumphed over Mrs. Ramsay, who wouldnever know how Paul went to coffee-houses and hada mistress; how he sat on the ground and Mintahanded him his tools; how she stood here painting,had never married, not even William Bankes.260
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