TO THE LIGHTHOUSEa sight, for a glory it surpassed everything in herexperience, and burnt year after year like a signalfire on a desert island at the edge of the sea, and onehad only to say "in love" and instantly, as happenednow, up rose Paul’s fire again. And it sank and shesaid to herself, laughing, "The Rayleys"; how Paulwent to coffee-houses and played chess.)

She had only escaped by the skin of her teeththough, she thought. She had been looking at thetable-cloth, and it had flashed upon her that shewould move the tree to the middle, and need nevermarry anybody, and she had felt an enormous exulta-tion. She had felt, now she could stand up to Mrs.Ramsay—a tribute to the astonishing power thatMrs. Ramsay had over one. Do this, she said, andone did it. Even her shadow at the window withJames was full of authority. She remembered howWilliam Bankes had been shocked by her neglectof the significance of mother and son. Did she notadmire their beauty? he said. But William, she re-membered, had listened to her with his wise child’seyes when she explained how it was not irreverence:how a light there needed a shadow there and so on.She did not intend to disparage a subject which, theyagreed, Raphael had treated divinely. She was notcynical. Quite the contrary. Thanks to his scientificmind he understood—a proof of disinterested in-262
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