THE L1GHTHoUsERamsay, who would be full of curiosity to knowwhat had become of the Rayleys, She would feela little triumphant, telling Mrs. Ramsay that themarriage had 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 brushedthem aside, one had even a little contempt forthem. They are at our mercy. Mrs. Ramsay hasfaded and gone, she thought. We can over-rideher wishes, improve away her limited, oldfashioned ideas. She recedes further and furtherfrom us. Mockingly she seemed to see her thereat the end of the corridor of years saying, ofall incongruous things, “ Marry, marry! " (sittingvery upright early in the morning with the birdsbeginning 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 At thatall her being, even her beauty, became for amoment, dusty and out of date. For a moment

Lily, standing there, with the sun hot on her back,é summing up the Rayleys, triumphed over Mrs.Ramsay, who would never know how Paul wentto coH`ee—houses and had a mistress; how hesat on the ground and Minta handed him his269