THE LIGHTHOUSEpower she saw too how it fed on the treasure ofthe house, greedily, disgustingly, and she loathedit. But for a sight, for a glory it surpassed every-thing in her experience, and burnt year after yearlike a signal fire on a desert island at the edge ofthe sea, and one had only to say "in love" andinstantly, as happened now, up rose Paul’s fireagain. And it sank and she said to herself,laughing, "The Rayleys"; how Paul went tocoffee-houses and played chess.)

She had only escaped by the skin of her teeththough, she thought. She had been looking atthe table-cloth, and it had flashed upon her thatshe would move the tree to the middle, and neednever marry anybody, and she had felt an enor-mous exultation. She had felt, now she could standup to Mrs. Ramsay—a tribute to the astonishingpower that Mrs. Ramsay had over one. Do this,she said, and one did it. Even her shadow at thewindow with James was full of authority. Sheremembered how William Bankes had beenshocked by her neglect of the significance ofmother and son. Did she not admire their beauty?he said. But William, she remembered, hadlistened to her with his wise child’s eyes when sheexplained how it was not irreverence: how a lightthere needed a shadow there and so on. She didnot intend to disparage a subject which, they271
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