TO THE LIGHTHOUSElate then. People were getting ready for dinner. Thehouse was all lit up, and the lights after the darknessmade his eyes feel full, and he said to himself, child-ishly, as he walked up the drive, Lights, lights, lights,and repeated in a dazed way, Lights, lights, lights, asthey came into the house, staring about him with hisface quite stiff. But, good heavens, he said to himself,putting his hand to his tie, I must not make a foolof myself.)15'Yes,' said Prue, in her considering way, answeringher mother’s question, ‘I think Nancy did go with
them.'16
Well then, Nancy had gone with them, Mrs. Ram-say supposed, wondering, as she put down a brush,took up a comb, and said ‘Come in’ to a tap at thedoor (Jasper and Rose came in), whether the factthat Nancy was with them made it less likely or morelikely that anything would happen; it made it lesslikely, somehow, Mrs. Ramsay felt, very irrationally,except that after all holocaust on such a scale was notprobable. They could not all be drowned. And onceagain she felt alone in the presence of her old antago-nist, life.
Jasper and Rose said that Mildred wanted to knowwhether she should wait dinner.‘Not for the Queen of England,’ said Mrs. Ramsayemphatically.‘Not for the Empress of Mexico,’ she added, laugh-94
