TO THE LIGHTHOUSEwaves-—all this was real. Thinking this, she wasmurmuring to herself “ VV e perished, each alone ",for her father’s words broke and broke again inher mind, when her father, seeing her gazing sovaguely, began to tease her. Didn’t she know thepoints of the compass? he asked. Didn’t sheknow the North from the South? Did she reallythink they lived right out there? And he pointedagain, and showed her where their house was,there, by those trees. He wished she would tryto be more accurate, he said: “ Tell me——whichis East, which is VVest? " he said, half laughingat her, half scolding her, for he could not understand the state of mind of any one, not absolutelyimbecile, who did not know the points of thecompass. Yet she did not know. And seeing hergazing, with her vague, now rather frightened,eyes fixed where no house was Mr. Ramsay forgothis dream; how he walked up and down betweenthe urns on the terrace; how the arms werestretched out to him. He thought, women arealways like that; the vagueness of their minds ishopeless; it was a thing he had never been able tounderstand; but so it was. It had been so withher——his wife. They could not keep anythingclearly fixed in their minds. But he had beenwrong to be angry with her; moreover, did henot rather like this vagueness in women? It was2 58
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