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THE WINDOWing at Jasper; for he shared his mother’s vice: he,too, exaggerated.And if Rose liked, she said, while Jasper took themessage, she might choose which jewels she was towear. When there are fifteen people sitting down todinner, one cannot keep things waiting for ever. Shewas now beginning to feel annoyed with them forbeing so late; it was inconsiderate of them, and itannoyed her on top of her anxiety about them, thatthey should choose this very night to be out late, when,in fact, she wished the dinner to be particularly nice,since William Bankes had at last consented to dinewith them; and they were having Mildred’s master-piece — Bœuf en Daube. Everything depended uponthings being served up the precise moment they wereready. The beef, the bay-leaf, and the wine—all mustbe done to a turn. To keep it waiting was out of the ques-tion. Yet of course to-night, of all nights, out theywent, and they came in late, and things had to be sentout, things had to be kept hot; the Bœuf en Daubewould be entirely spoilt.Jasper offered her an opal necklace; Rose a goldnecklace. Which looked best against her black dress?Which did indeed? said Mrs. Ramsay absent-mind-edly, looking at her neck and shoulders (but avoidingher face), in the glass. And then, while the childrenrummaged among her things, she looked out of thewindow at a sight which always amused her — therooks trying to decide which tree to settle on. Everytime, they seemed to change their minds and rose upinto the air again, because, she thought, the old rook,the father rook, old Joseph was her name for him, wasa bird of a very trying and difficult disposition. He95