245standwith some symbolical majesty. It was now the st married state: the being& encirclinghusband & wife; which rising from them, made them so solemn, & soin their unconsciousness - for they were looking at Prue throwingcatches - so awe inspiring & moving to the emotions, so thatLily thought how she saw now what Mrs. Ramsay meant aboutmarriage: it was just that attitude of a woman & man looking together?what catches a girl throwing a ball:& suddenly the symbolical?retreat?withinfigure sank back into them;& they became, as they reached them,Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay again - Mr. Ramsay, too, quite openlyMr. & Mrs. Ramsay watching the children, who had finishedtheir cricket, throwing catches.And if Mrs. Ramsay wasthe encirclinghaze soshot itself upin themamused, as Lily guessed, & came to her own inevitable conclusion,momentabout her & William Bankes, still the evening was extraordinarilyrandom random & irresponsible - with the ball soaring up,them all following itwith their eyes,& at the same timeseeing that one star, &then the a& the bare branched(I have triumphedtonight" saidMrs. Ramsaymeaning thatWilliam Bankeshad agreed todine with them)I havetriumphed& all thenatural worldwith its[?]light hadlapsed hadrelinquished itsgrasp: one hadcometrees. A In the failinglight they looked pale & aetherial, &sharp edged; they lookedas if spectral; the swallowsswooped low; & now with a dull thud, some doordor beetle struck thenet which enclosed the lawn; or whzwhizzed past her cheek.Nothing mattered in the least.momentinAnd if ?thislovely irresponsible beauty could be induced to stay,with its moths& its evening primroses its tennis balls &girls & boys staggering back looking upward, its sudden sharpcries, its thuds, & whizzes, & its vast spaces between onefigure & another,then for they seemed all far removedeverythingseemed possible - nothing mattered -from each other,then nothingwould matter ever again -AndHowever,The wilderness the - It was wild; it was impulsive;Prue caught the ball, brilliantly; & running ranfull tilt at them & caught the ball brilliantly, & inone hand; & her mother said, asked her,

"Haven't they come back yet?"

Did Nancy gowith them?" her mother asked.
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